Garden Grove Mulling Crackdown On 'Lingerie Cafes'

GARDEN GROVE (CBS) — Would you like your coffee or tea a little risqué?

Garden Grove city officials are considering a crackdown on "lingerie cafes," where coffee, tea and smoothies are served by female waitresses wearing little more than slips, more often than not of the sheer variety. And although its illegal, smoking inside these cafes is also common, CBS2/KCAL9's Suzanne Marquez reported.

Police say the cafes, which can be distinguished by their mirrored windows and doors so passersby can't see inside, have become a hotbed of criminal activity.

Raids were conducted in March at 20 of the city's 37 lingerie cafes, which resulted in nearly two dozen arrests, the recovery of nearly 200 illegal gambling machines and $145,000 in cash.

But with the recession dragging on the way it has been, landlords for some of these cafes say the business from these cafes make a big difference. Fred Llano, who is the landlord of the Pussycat Café on Brookhurst Avenue, says these cafes always pay the rent on time.

"The economy's got tough, and from the landlord's point of view and the tenant's point of view, they have to reinvent themselves," Llano said. "You go back 8, 10 years ago, they probably had more clothes on. But I think the economy's changed, and they have all gone to 'we have to survive, we have to make business.'"