Officials Revoke License From ‘Bikini Barista’ Coffee Shop in California

A coffee shop in California that features female employees who wear skimpy outfits had its license revoked for that reason. Google Street View

A coffee shop in California that features female employees who wear skimpy outfits had its license revoked for that very reason.

City council members in American Canyon, California, voted unanimously to revoke a license given to Bottoms Up Espresso, which has been described as a “bikini barista” coffee shop.

The coffee shop has several locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, reported SFGate, which added that its license in American Canyon was secured last December.

A location in Modesto, California Google Street View

City officials said they received complaints about the servers’ outfits after it was opened. A community director then spoke with the owner.

The official said that after speaking with the owner, they determined that it was operating as an “adult business.”

“I met with one of the owners on Jan. 4, 2019 who informed me that he intends to require the employees at the American Canyon store to wear costumes that are as revealing as the costumes worn on staff at other Bottoms Up Espresso stores,” community director Brent Cooper said weeks ago, reported the Vallejo Times-Herald.

And he added: “The business owner provided a ‘dress code.’ The costumes in the ‘dress code’ are revealing to a degree that the business meets the definition of an adult business per the city’s Municipal Code.”

Nate Wilson, the owner of the business, told Fox News that city officials have gone beyond the law,” adding that he’ll “move on” from the American Canyon location.

“We have decided to move on from that location due to the fact the city will waste a bunch of taxpayers’ money to fight us in court, where if we wanted to make a point [we] would win. We do not fall into ‘adult entertainment’ as they suggest. The license was revoked before we even opened or went to any appeals. The city is acting beyond their powers and shows you how even small government abuses their powers,” he told the news outlet.

Wilson had argued that the baristas aren’t wearing anything that people wouldn’t see on a California beach.

“We are a very classy business and pride ourselves on customer service and quality drinks. We have dress codes that expose less then you would see at a pool or beach,” he told Fox.

Wilson founded the first Bottoms Up Espresso location in Modesto, California, in 2011, and he added there about a dozen other locations in development in Sacramento.

In Chico, California, where there is another Bottoms Up location, locals have also complained.

“There’s nothing we can do. It hasn’t opened,” said City Manager Mark Orme, who told the Chicago Enterprise-Record that he’s received a number of complaints about the business. He made the comment before it was opened.

Another critic said the business is opening near a dance studio, where young children go.

“The concern is that Hype Dance has 300-plus students coming in and out weekly and their exposure to the business is out of the kids’ control. This is their home, where they feel safe and comfortable,” said Sarah Schneeweis, the owner of the studio.

“My first gut reaction is, ‘I don’t want our kids to have to be exposed to that,’” she told Action News Now. “The inappropriate attire of the baristas working at this establishment does not align with what we’re trying to teach our kids at this studio.”

The mayor of Chico, Sean Morgan, also said that many people aren’t happy.

“It’s unfortunate someone would come from out of town and put a business like this on one of our busiest intersections,” he told the Enterprise-Record.