If you’re thinking about relaxing with a nice, cold glass of Vietnamese iced coffee and a scantily clad waitress, you might have to make these plans sooner than later. The popular lingerie cafes in Southern California’s Little Saigon are facing stricter regulations from the City Council of Garden Grove, where employees must dress appropriately (aka not like a stripper), arcade games are prohibited and owners must not allow any smoking to take place indoors (which is an already illegal activity but with specific prohibitions against coffeehouses).
These establishments, which are spread around Garden Grove, Westminster and parts of Santa Ana, do not serve alcohol or food, but mostly coffee, smoothies and tea. Police Chief Kevin Raney says the amendment to the old cafe ordinance is meant to tighten regulations and ensure that these establishments that call themselves coffeehouses “do not turn into gentleman’s clubs.”
The City Council is also including a ban on window tinting or coverings for these coffeehouses so police can actually see what’s happening inside the establishments and ensure that none of the new rules are being broken. But wait, let’s go back to the stripper waitresses. I get the stripper heels, the bikinis and the short skirts–but pasties? I consider myself pretty liberal when it comes to sexuality and the female form, but I draw the line when it comes to the necessity of using these tiny little pieces of sticky fabric that cover nipples to sell delicious iced coffee. Yes, sex and hot women always sell but at what point are these coffeehouse owners not using creative ways to draw in new customers and only exploiting women to promote their cafe? (Seriously, look at the grin on that guy’s face.)
I don’t care if the female employees themselves say they enjoy their jobs as lingerie waitresses but maybe someone could explain to me how this actually empowers women and their sexuality? I feel like such a 1950’s housewife when I say that I’m a little relieved that the city is passing ordinances to curb the skimpy outfits for waitresses, because sometimes it takes an official notice to raise awareness on and protect women from further exploitation when an establishment uses offensive tactics to increase business and notoriety.
On the other hand, I find it disturbing that new regulation specifically targets these Vietnamese businesses. The illegal gambling and indoor smoking should be addressed but what right does the City Council have to impose their decidedly more conservative approach on a specific ethnic community? If we operate in a supply-and-demand system–and clearly there’s a demand of these kinds of coffeehouses, perhaps there’s more harm in imposing prohibitions on small businesses than attempting to control how someone somewhere serves their iced coffee. I understand the police department’s responsibility in taking on any illegal activity but I’d rather see them work with the community on developing anti-crime and anti-gang measures rather than focus on the coffee house business. Do you believe that these ordinances will have a positive or negative affect on the Vietnamese community?
