Butlers café
| Public | |
| Industry | Restaurant |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder | Yuki Hirohata |
| Headquarters | Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan |
| Website | Butlerscafe.com |
Butlers Café (バトラースカフェ Batorāsu Kafe?) is a restaurant and bar located in Shibuya, Tokyo, one of Japan's leading fashion centers. The cafe opened in 2006 and was spawned from a recent wave of maid cafés (メイドカフェ Meido kafe?) and cosplay restaurants (コスプレ系飲食店 Kosupure-kei inshokuten?) that have opened up in and around Tokyo, though predominantly in Akihabara. Butlers Café is one of a few butler-themed cafes in Tokyo but as of July 2008 is the sole cafe hiring only foreign men as staff. The cafe serves a menu consisting of mainly Italian food, desserts and a range of teas and alcoholic beverages. It was designed for women in Tokyo who "need a bit of fun and excitement in their lives", said the cafe's owner.
The cafe was opened in mid-2006 by Graeme Cooke and Yuki Hirohata, who both had the idea during email conversations. Cooke was teaching English and Hirohata was working as an "office lady", as they say in Japan. Both had a dream of escape to some degree. Maid cafes have been a staple of otaku culture in Japan since they first sprouted in Akihabara, Tokyo's electronic and anime goods shopping center, around 2000. These, and other theme cafes of similar nature have become increasingly popular in Japan and more recently in other countries throughout the world. Since opening, the cafe has attracted over 2,000 frequent customers and has appeared in several publications and media articles. In July 2008 it was featured in a story by CNN which focused on the social aspects of Japanese society, asking why such a cafe is something that Japanese women have been searching for.
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Wikipedia