Food Cart Review: Hot Bikini Brew

SOME LIKE IT HOT: A mostly bare barista does her thing.
By RUTH BROWN

Is a coffee kiosk staffed entirely by hot chicks in bikinis a tasteless and degrading enterprise or an empowering and titillating local business befitting this sex-positive city? Is it a way for sleazy men to ogle tits on the cheap or a way for self-confident young ladies to make money from their best assets? Inner Southeast Portland's Hot Bikini Brew would make a great subject for a postgraduate gender-studies thesis. Post-feminist debates aside, the house coffee ($2 for 12 oz., brewed from Hillsboro's Longbottom coffee) is better than you'll get from myriad other drive-thru fast-food options, including the Dutch Brothers stall a few blocks away. Of course, for about the same price, you can get a precisely poured, Chemex brewed, single-origin coffee down the road at Coava Coffee. The real appeal of this roadside coffeehouse isn't in its cups (not those cups, either), but that these ladies are clearly willing to work hard for tips: You'll get a conversation, a convincing smile and a story to tell your workmates. And you'll see tits.

  1. Order this: The Starbucks-style “Mexican mocha” ($3.75) was a pleasant blend of cinnamon and chocolate without too much sweetness.
  2. Best deal: Friday is “fantasy dress up” day.

DRINK: 645 SE Madison St. 5:30 am-5:30 pm Monday-Friday, 7 am-4 pm Saturday.

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