Maine's Topless Coffee Bar (Portland: home, live, restaurant)

[Nie0214]

I liked how the news stories point out that there's a topless waiter too!

[lrfox]

Did anyone else find this line...

"We want to keep the girls respectable, not trashy," said Crabtree, who lives in the motel attached to the shop. "The biggest thing is keeping people happy."

...A bit ironic?! The guy who lives in the motel and operates a topless coffee shop wants to make sure his employees aren't, "trashy?" I'm sure his standards are super high.

I also wonder how accurate the report was in stating that the employees don't make a standard wage. Even servers get a standard wage at most places, albeit a small one. I can't imagine having to bank on tips alone.

In all serious, something seemed a bit off to me about this article. From what I read, I don't know how successful this will be. Let's be honest... as a 23 year old guy, I can attest that a little T&A will only get you so far. Coffee and a few donuts (and "atmosphere") are not enough to keep a little business like this running for long, ESPECIALLY in a place noted for high business turnover. The report indicated that traffic flow wasn't exactly high; and with the media attention this place has received, I'd have expected it to be a bit higher.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by lrfox

Did anyone else find this line...

"We want to keep the girls respectable, not trashy," said Crabtree, who lives in the motel attached to the shop. "The biggest thing is keeping people happy."

...A bit ironic?! The guy who lives in the motel and operates a topless coffee shop wants to make sure his employees aren't, "trashy?" I'm sure his standards are super high.

I also wonder how accurate the report was in stating that the employees don't make a standard wage. Even servers get a standard wage at most places, albeit a small one. I can't imagine having to bank on tips alone.

In all serious, something seemed a bit off to me about this article. From what I read, I don't know how successful this will be. Let's be honest... as a 23 year old guy, I can attest that a little T&A will only get you so far. Coffee and a few donuts (and "atmosphere") are not enough to keep a little business like this running for long, ESPECIALLY in a place noted for high business turnover. The report indicated that traffic flow wasn't exactly high; and with the media attention this place has received, I'd have expected it to be a bit higher.

i agree, the coffee and donut prices seemed a bit high, i wonder if they give free popcorn, like the ground round??

[BoundtofindME]

Wonder if they have plans for the male server to offer a bottomless cup (of coffee).

[forest beekeeper]

Just so we have the right mind picture here:

the menu at the shop is: cups of New England Coffee ($3 each), and donuts made from Chase Farm Bakery in Whitefield ($2 each).

He does not pay his staff a regular wage; all their earnings come from customer tips.

He interviewed 150 people for the positions and narrowed the field to 10, and he said he selected people who were the friendliest and comfortable

They had 60 customers on Monday, despite a snowstorm; of those customers, about eight were women.



So 150 people tried out for the job. He 'hired' 10 employees, pays none of them wages, the average customer buying a cup of coffee and a donut will spend $5, and on their grand opening they had 60 customers.

I think that a lot of folks wanted jobs, and even still, the over-all Gross is pretty low.

[fxtrader]

This must be making the news outside of Maine. I had a co-worker on the Cape ask me about it yesterday.

[Casper1212]

It was all over the internet yesterday. Hubby goes, "Hey, they opened a topless restaurant in Maine!" I asked him if he meant the one we were all talking about a month ago rather than give in to the urge to slap him!

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by fxtrader

This must be making the news outside of Maine. I had a co-worker on the Cape ask me about it yesterday.

One of the Today show hosts mentioned it. It's news because while it's not the first of its kind (they have a chain of them on the West Coast, centered in Vegas), it's first of its kind in such a rural environment. Vassalboro is the the type of place where you'd expect this type of development.

[Smallville]

This is interesting, at best.

[Maine Writer]

Interesting is good!