REVscene Automotive Forum - Article about Cosplay cafe's coming to Vancouver

VANCOUVER - In the busy streets of Tokyo, it’s unremarkable for a person to walk into a café and be greeted by a bowing waitress in a French-maid outfit. Neither is it unusual for diners to patronize a jail-themed restaurant, and be handcuffed and led to a dining table nestled behind bars by a waitress dressed up as a sexy prison guard.

These so-called cosplay (short for “costume play”) cafés, where staff are dolled up in a variety of kinky costumes to bus tables and take orders, have been all the rage in Tokyo since the 1990s. Like wildfire, they have spread to other Asian cities, including Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Now, one has finally landed in Metro Vancouver.

At the Magnetic Café in Richmond, young waitresses in quirky guises eagerly serve up Taiwanese bubble tea and signature dishes such as crispy fried chicken nuggets or pancakes with green onions. Depending on the week, the waitresses could be French maids, policewomen, sailors or schoolgirls.

For years, all sorts of popular consumer trends have come from Asia’s trendsetting cities to Vancouver via both immigration and travel. For example, Tokyo brought us ionic hair-straightening salons and Hong Kong introduced pre-sale condos. And Taipei gave us the quintessential bubble tea café.

The cosplay café, however, is perhaps the most eye-catching one of all.

Owner Angela Chang had always dreamed of opening up her own bubble tea café after bartending in one for two years.

The stay-at-home mom had no business experience, but last month, she bought out an existing bubble tea business for $180,000 and reopened it as the Magnetic Café with seating for 110 people.

While Chang has hired a new chef and changed some food and drink items, she didn’t mess with the core of the business: a restaurant with servers who dress up as different Japanese anime or manga-inspired characters.

“I’ve heard about such restaurants in Taiwan, but I really just followed the pre-owner’s idea,” said Chang, who immigrated to Vancouver from Taiwan 10 years ago. “I think it’s really unique. No other restaurant [in Vancouver] does this.”

Cosplay cafés first popped up in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. Mainly, they feature female employees who dress up as French maids and greet customers with a deep bow and a soft, “Welcome home, Master.” Some would even get down on their knees to stir cream and sugar into a customer’s coffee, or to spoon-feed them.

Since then, theme restaurants with a cosplay feel have made their way from Japan to other cities in Asia such as Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong. For a fun night out, diners can live it up at a hospital restaurant, where waitresses dressed up as nurses serve drinks via intravenous drip bags or syringes, and bring food to an operating table.

“It’s a risky concept no matter how you think of it,” Magnetic Café manager Don Lui said. “Some people may find it controversial or demeaning, but it depends on how tasteful you keep it. It’s no different from a casual uniform, other than they change every week.”

Waitress Mandy Yeh, 19, said she has no problem wearing a baby blue, polka-dotted maid outfit complete with a frilly white apron and a matching hair band to serve meals.

“I think it’s pretty special and I’ve been told I look really cute,” she said. Pointing to her skirt, which hits just above the knee, she added, “I don’t feel uncomfortable.”

Business has been slow during lunch hours, said Chang, but once 9 p.m. rolls around, customers flock in by the dozens. Most of them are young Asian men.

“We’re targeting a group that no other bubble tea place is targeting,” Lui said. “Usually, when you think of bubble tea, you think of girls who sit in a café, chatting for hours, while guys are more likely to grab a quick bite or order takeout and go. But we actually have more guys who want to spend time here.”

Lui said he has no doubt that some guys are “probably there to check out the girls,” but the café does try to play down the fetish aspect that some North Americans may associate with cosplay restaurants.

“The costumes aren’t a sexy thing, they’re a cute thing,” Lui said. “If I look at our customer base, they don’t seem like the kind of guys [who would be] into fetishes. Nobody has tried to harass our waitresses or make derogative comments.”

Indeed, David Sun, who dropped by the new Magnetic Café last week, said the Japanese kimonos that the waitresses were sporting that night were just “all right.”

“If they’re wearing something new, then it’s good to look at, but if the food was horrendous I probably wouldn’t come back,” he said.

Still, to keep the cosplay idea fresh and to make her restaurant stand out from the competition, Chang is ordering more costumes online from Taiwan.

“I’m thinking nurses, flight attendants and car-show models,” she said.

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