They’re dressed like French maids, but this is no cleaning service. And no one here is French.
The dolled-up servers at Maid Café NY innocently smile, wink and giggle while they serve tea and cake — and give the city its first taste of a peculiar Japanese style of dining that takes customer service to new heights.
“Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama!” the waitstaff — all dressed like cartoonish maids — shouts to customers in greeting.
Translation: “Welcome home, my master!”
“Americans take it as a sexual thing, but we Japanese don’t see it like that,” says Satoshi Yoshimura, a music agent who opened Maid Café NY in August and manages an army of 17 maids. “My goal is to give a sense of [Japanese costume] culture to New Yorkers.”
Indeed, sexual activity is off-limits at the hundreds of maid cafes in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, where rules prohibit physical contact — or even asking a maid for her number. Instead customers pay per hour to be served by maids. Food and drink is extra, and for additional fees the maids will pose for photos, squirt ketchup or chocolate sauce onto food, squish a hamburger between a bun, or even hand-feed patrons.
At Maid Café NY, service is limited to snacks, beverages, bowing and cute conversation (ceremonial ketchup-squirting is reserved for special events).
In Japan, both men and women visit maid cafes, and the whole thing is supposed to be adorably sweet — like many of the menu items.
Yoshimura works hard to make sure this concept isn’t lost in translation. It’s a challenge, considering a roomful of teenagers wearing dollhouse outfits could strike some Americans as, well, creepy.
The entrepreneur has Americanized the shop in some ways: paying per hour wouldn’t fly here, he says. But he’s betting New Yorkers will be enchanted by the doting maids and come to his café for bubble teas, sweet cakes, ice cream and his signature blend of green tea and coffee. There’s also more hearty fare on the menu, like a chicken cutlet with rich brown curry sauce over rice.
Maid Café NY is on Centre St. in the heart of Chinatown, and Yoshimura was careful to differentiate his eatery from the many Chinese bakeries in the area.
“Those restaurants treat customers like they are the enemy,” he says. “I really don’t know how they survive.”
Here, comfort is king. Maids say it’s their duty to create a dream world for customers — one where everyone who walks through the door is a “master,” and everything is cute, innocent and safe.
“The maid café is not part of the real world,” says Shiho Anai, an 18-year-old maid. “It’s just a fantasy place where you are free to relax.”
So far the Big Apple’s first maid café is a hit with high school students, who drop by in the late afternoon to eat, enjoy role-playing games and joke around with the maids.
“The customers here are nicer than in other cafes,” says diner Cheynne Deago, 17. “It’s really hard to be mean to someone when you are surrounded by girls dressed up as maids.”
Maid Café NY, 150 Centre St. between Walker and White Sts., (775) 386-2692, maidcafeny.com
