Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

You’d think that a Seattle blog with an alleged interest in coffee would have picked up on this phenomenon before now:

To stand apart from the hordes of drive-through espresso stands that clutter the Northwest’s roadsides, commuter coffee stops such as Tukwila’s Cowgirls Espresso are adding bodacious baristas, flirty service and ever more-revealing outfits to the menu.

At Port Orchard’s Natté Latté, baristas sport hot-pink hot pants and tight white tank tops. Day-of-the-week theme outfits ranging from racy lingerie to “fetish” ensembles are the dress code at Moka Girls Espresso in Auburn and at several Cowgirls Espresso stands in the area. Bikini tops are the special at Café Lorraine on Highway 9 in Woodinville, and the women of The Sweet Spot in Shoreline pose provocatively in Playmate-style profiles on the stand’s Web site.

I drive-commute sporadically and to scattered locations, and when I do, I load up a travel cup with a quad-shot macchiato like the one that wrecked my laptop last week, so I’m pretty oblivious to the whole drive-through business. I hate the idea of sitting in line with my engine running. I imagine the looky-flirty transactions at these places would make the wait even more intolerable. But if you guys insist, I’ll go out and take pictures as a service to you.

Ironic, too, that the above article is published the same week as this story about a stalker, fixated on a Starbucks barista, being detained after attempting to purchase a gun, presumably to carry out threats he’d made. I’m not saying there’s any causal connection, but I’d be a little bit worried, if I were one of the steamy sexpresso baristas, about the clientele attracted to those places.