Having "sexy baristas" serving coffee isn't a novel idea, but this type of gimmick can have strange consequences in some towns. It's their town, so I won't say "Get a life!" The servers at Dreamgirls Espresso seem friendly and seem to enjoy their work, but they have citizens of Yakima in a frenzy, typically a frenzy of one of two varieties. Right-wing Christians find this place easy fodder for their moralizing sermons, there are apparently a lot of people like this in Yakima and their outrage has resulted in a lot of free press for this thriving small business as enraged citizens attempt to persuade an apparently receptive City Council to put Dreamgirls Espresso out of business. I don't recall seeing any women getting their coffee there. Dreamgirls Espresso apparently caters to men going through a midlife crisis who want attention from attractive women half their age, men willing to pay an extra dollar for a cup of espresso for the privilege. And these women do a service to the rest of the women in Yakima by keeping such men away from the coffee shops where women who want a serious relationship go for coffee. I decided to support the cause of free speech and ordered a mocha from them; I doubt that I've had coffee that bad since the 1990's. dreamgirlsespresso.com and the coffee stand itself have an ample selection of souvenir merchandise for their apparently dedicated client base. To outsiders, the controversy surrounding Dreamgirls Espresso may seem disturbing. There probably won't come a time when drinking coffee here will become a rite of passage into manhood for the men of Yakima, at least not any time soon, because I see no evidence that the ultra-conservatives of Yakima will have enough tolerance for the beliefs of others to allow this. There probably won't come a time when drinking coffee here will become a rite of passage into manhood for the men of Yakima, because the volume of their business now is so high that the market won't force their baristas to learn how to make good espresso.
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