‘Bikini baristas’ stirred up other cities

MELISSA SANTOS; The News Tribune
Last updated: May 26th, 2008 01:20 AM (PDT)

Auburn officials got the same kind of complaints from residents when a Cowgirls Espresso drive-thru opened in their city about two months ago. They explored using labor laws to compel the female coffee servers to cover up.

The City of Lakewood took a slightly different tack by checking whether the baristas’ outfits violated indecent exposure laws.

Both cities had similarly luckless results.

Carolyn Robertson, Auburn’s government relations manager, said state officials told her little could be done to regulate the baristas’ clothing – or lack of it.

“Their advice to me was that at this time there is no current state statute that addresses that issue,” Robertson said. “Our hands are tied.”

“It really did surprise us that there was the ability for people to be as scantily dressed as that,” she added. “It’s frustrating, because we want little kids to be able to go and get a cup of cocoa with their mom without going ‘Yikes!’”

Auburn and Lakewood have this frustration in common with Bonney Lake.

Workers at the new Cowgirls Espresso stand in Bonney Lake, in the 21000 block of Highway 410, serve coffee in bikinis or lingerie.

Baristas at the Hot Chick-a-Latte stand near the intersection of Highway 410 and the Old Buckley Highway take their exposure a step further, sometimes wearing only pasties or scarves to cover their breasts.

After receiving dozens of complaints regarding the new coffee stand, the Bonney Lake City Council asked its legal staff last week to explore what regulatory steps it could take.

Jeff Ganson, the deputy city attorney, said he’d look but had yet to find laws restricting “bikini baristas.”

David Gifford, manager of the state Department of Health’s food safety program, said Friday that the only applicable rules address the cleanliness of garments; they don’t rule garments necessary.

“As long as they’re washing their hands and keeping things clean, they’re following the law,” he said. “There’s nothing in there about regulating how much clothing they wear.”

Worker safety rules also don’t dictate that baristas must be fully clothed, said Elaine Fischer, spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industries.

“It doesn’t fall into the category of requiring personal protective equipment, like applying chemicals or welding,” Fischer said. “There’s not a requirement you have to wear clothes. Normally that’s just a given, except with this situation.”

In Lakewood, complaints started rolling in late last year about a Hot Chick-a-Latte stand on Custer Road.

Lakewood police checked whether the baristas’ outfits violated indecent exposure laws. Officers determined they didn’t, city spokesman Jeff Brewster said Friday.

He said the state’s indecent exposure laws don’t outlaw bikinis and are vague enough that they might not prohibit pasties, either.

Through trial and error, Lakewood spent years crafting a way to regulate strip clubs and adult bookstores. But coffee shops have turned into an unanticipated form of adult entertainment.

Police have responded to complaints at the Hot Chick-a-Latte stand multiple times but haven’t issued workers or business owners any citations, Brewster said.

According to the RCW 9A.88.010, “A person is guilty of indecent exposure if he or she intentionally makes any open and obscene exposure of his or her person … knowing that such conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm.”

Says Brewster: “By the way this is written, our police don’t think a pasty would be in violation of the law.”

Robertson said members of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs told Auburn the same thing.

For the first few weeks the Cowgirls Espresso stand was open in Auburn, the city received between 5 and 10 complaints per day about its baristas’ outfits, Robertson said.

In Bonney Lake, 18 residents brought their complaints about barista stands to a City Council meeting two weeks ago. Some promised to hold protests over the three-day holiday weekend.

Susan Parrish owns the Hot Chick-a-Latte stands in Bonney Lake, Lakewood and Spanaway. She said she expects the protesters will only help her business.

“If they were smart, they wouldn’t do this,” Parrish said.

For now, the R-rated coffeehouse controversy appears to be mostly contained to the South Sound.

Gifford, the state Health Department manager, noted that all the complaints he’s heard about indecent baristas have originated in Pierce County.

Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058

Originally published: May 26th, 2008 01:20 AM (PDT)