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NEWS: Detroit's Maid Cafe 'Chou Anime' Closes Its Doors

firedragon54738 wrote:

Well that a shame it seems the maid cafe just don't work in the US

The owners should have just made it a host club. All the women and booze you can handle?

What gave them the idea it would work in Detroit given how many people are at the poverty level. It would have worked somewhere like San Francisco, or maybe Las Vegas.

kusanagi-sama wrote:

What gave them the idea it would work in Detroit given how many people are at the poverty level. It would have worked somewhere like San Francisco, or maybe Las Vegas.

You'd have better luck setting up a maid cafe in Vegas or Atlantic City.

@ BriAnime: I wouldn't be surprised if the owner came down with what Anthony Bourdain calls "owner's syndrome". Maybe the owner only wanted to show off his love of anime/manga/maids instead of making money. Maybe the owner might have also started the cafe to get laid. Reminds me of this anecdote about a retired dentist who was always told he threw great dinner parties. "You should open up a restaurant," his friends tell him. The dentist believes them. He opens the restaurant, not to make Dead Presidents, but to run around signing dinner checks like Rick from Casablanca. Anyone who starts a restaurant for the sex, or for complements, or to show off their shit, is unprepared for the realities of the business. I know--I've been working in restaurants since high school. I've done everything except serving, hosting, and managing. I've seen restaurants that are dead, restaurants that are busy, all the stuff in between.

If the owner did it for love, they're a danger to themselves and others. Love for maids, love for hosts, love for George Gershwin's music (Always wanted a cabaret joint to present his tunes), love for the landshiply cooking of fieldly Mexico (And it'll be authentic, too! No frozen margaritas!), love of 18th-century French antiques (I need a restaurant to show off this stuff--what great taste I have!), love for that great movie they have all the memorabilia from.

If you're going to be a successful restauranteur, you may as well live on the premises for the first few years. We're looking at 17-hour shifts, TOTAL involvement in this harsh, tough trade. You must be fluent in Spanish (As most of the cooks are Latin American immigrants who may or may not be here legally), health codes, tax law, fire/building codes, environmental laws, OSHA regulations, labor laws, zoning, insurance, liquor licenses, trash removal, linen, grease disposal. Then you have Murphy's Law to deal with: Suddenly, the drains in your kitchen are backed up with raw sewage, pushing hundreds of gallons of impacted shit into your dining room; your coke-addled chef just yelled racial slurs at that hot Asian waitress who's working her way through law school, ensuring your presence in court for half a year; your bartender is giving away drinks to underage girls who could crash their dad's Escalade into a busload of Jerry's Kids, putting your liquor license in danger; the Ansel System could go off and shut down your kitchen in the middle of a busy night; the ongoing struggle with rodents and cockroaches; you just bought a bunch of fish and seafood when the market was low but now your freezer's gone to shit on a holiday weekend so you'll have trouble getting a repair guy in time; your dishwasher just walked out after arguing with the busboy and X table needs glasses NOW; Homeland Security is at the door for a surprise check of your kitchen's green cards; the produce guy wants a certified check or he's taking back your food delivery; you didn't order enough napkins for the weekend--and is that food critic waiting for your hostess to stop flirting and notice her?

kusanagi-sama wrote:

What gave them the idea it would work in Detroit given how many people are at the poverty level. It would have worked somewhere like San Francisco, or maybe Las Vegas.

You'd have better luck setting up a maid cafe in Vegas or Atlantic City.

@ BriAnime: I wouldn't be surprised if the owner came down with what Anthony Bourdain calls "owner's syndrome". Maybe the owner only wanted to show off his love of anime/manga/maids instead of making money. Maybe the owner might have also started the cafe to get laid.

@ BriAnime: I wouldn't be surprised if the owner came down with what Anthony Bourdain calls "owner's syndrome". Maybe the owner only wanted to show off his love of anime/manga/maids instead of making money. Maybe the owner might have also started the cafe to get laid.

Chou Anime (cho an-i-may) Cafe opened on Woodward at Willis in Midtown in mid-June. Its owners, Oneka and Joe Samet of Birmingham, say it's the only brick and mortar maid cafe now operating in the United States.

surprised it didn't spark controversy over having black girls in maid outfits serving people.. with the way people like to complain about everything these days...

Clyde_Cash wrote:

kusanagi-sama wrote: What gave them the idea it would work in Detroit given how many people are at the poverty level. It would have worked somewhere like San Francisco, or maybe Las Vegas. You'd have better luck setting up a maid cafe in Vegas or Atlantic City. @ BriAnime: I wouldn't be surprised if the owner came down with what Anthony Bourdain calls "owner's syndrome". Maybe the owner only wanted to show off his love of anime/manga/maids instead of making money. Maybe the owner might have also started the cafe to get laid.

I guess you thought the owner was male or something? :/

who thought it was a good idea to dress up a bunch of black people in maid costumes and have them call people master

SlamJamBarkley wrote:

who thought it was a good idea to dress up a bunch of black people in maid costumes and have them call people master

Exactly. That would be big in Birmingham, AL, or Jackson, MS, but Detroit? I'm actually more surprised they never got burned out for that.

Y'know what these maid cafe failures need?

Have ya watched those TV series like Bar Rescue, or Kitchen Nightmares, or Restaurant: Impossible on the Food Network? Here's a quick description:

So they need to take a Maid Cafe business expert in Japan to get this businesses in ship-shape and get a TV series out of it!