Scantily clad baristas will not be the norm at Who Spilled the Beans Espresso near Morning Star preschool in Woodinville, employees said Thursday.
Patch visited the store Thursday afternoon near Ristorante Italianissimo and found two fully clothed females at the stand.
Sonja Possin said she's been working there for about five months and that she asked the owner if she could wear costumes on weekends in an attempt to boost business.
"We weren't going to do it during the week because of the kids," she said.
She said she had run the idea by customers before trying it and said she got a positive response. So Possin tried it on one recent weekend, wearing what she described as an Alice in Wonderland costume with a bustier-type top. Another day she said she wore a short skirt and top that showed her stomach.
As a result, on Wednesday, officials with Morning Star preschool sent a notice to parents telling them the owner of Who Spilled the Beans was turning the stand into one with bikini baristas. It said they would be letting the owner know that the practice would be unacceptable and encouraged parents to ask that the stand remain family-friendly.
On Thursday, Morning Star officials sent out another note to parents, saying they had learned that the stand would not become one with scantily clad staff.
"I have spoken to the owner of the espresso stand at the White Stallion Center and he has confirmed that he is NOT planning on turning his stand into a bikini barista and will continue to be a family friendly business," Morning Star Director Karen Hergert said in an email to Patch. "We would like to support him [the owner of Who Spilled the Beans] in this by asking local residents to patronize his stand so that he can be successful as a family oriented business."
In January, a local coffee stand owner had female employees wear "costumes" as an experiment, but it was a short-lived one. At that time the city of Woodinville did not have any ordinances regarding scantily clad baristas.
Like Woodinville Patch on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Sign up for our daily newsletter
