‘This Is Fabulous’: Washington State Opens Up to ‘Hunky’ Shirtless Male Barista Bar

A replacement for the stand formerly known as Ladybug Bikini, the new shop, which is located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, had its soft opening Friday. Signs advertising the new renovation read, “Hot guys serving hot coffee.”

So far, business is booming, and locals are a-coming. 

“I saw a hunky guy in there,” Jacob Haeger, who lives in the neighborhood, told local news station KIRO7. “There was a topless guy sitting in there with swollen pecs and what not.”

Shoma Goomansingh, another Capitol Hill local, told the station that they thought the new all-male barista change “was even more awesome.”

“They’re in these kind of brief bikinis, and they’re all very good looking young men, so I think both men and women will enjoy the difference,” Goomansingh added.

For Capitol Hill resident Tenzin Ghongpa, the change was “past due.”

"I think this is fabulous,” they told station K5 News. “We already have female baristas wearing bras and panties. I don't think anything is wrong with this."

The two male baristas currently holding down the coffee stand are Ja’Shaun Williams and Brandon Peters. Williams told the local outlet that prior to working for Dreamboyz Espresso, he’d been thinking about opening a similar shop of his own.

"I wanted to create my own company called Bro-kini Espresso, but then they made this one," Williams said. "I saw this advertisement on one of the female barista pages, and that they were hiring male baristas, so I had to try it."

But don’t think that the stand is just all about the well-toned pecs and glutes, folks. The coffee is said to be top-notch.

“It’s not just shirtless men - we make good drinks too,” Williams noted.

Despite being aware of recent controversies stirring up in the Evergreen state over bikini and lingerie-clad baristas, the pair aren’t overly concerned about being affected. Peters told K5 news that the branch was “getting good feedback” from customers.

According to the Washington Post, a number of bikini barista bars were affected in the city of Everett in 2009 after local law enforcement officials charged employees with prostitution and indecent exposure following a sting operation. 

More recently, in 2017, a group of Everett baristas and the owner of the Hillbilly Hotties chain filed a lawsuit against city ordinances that prohibited the bar from operating. In the two years since litigation first began, neither the city nor the baristas have backed down in the fight.