Café con Piernas

Coffee with Legs - Chile

As you are wandering around the streets of many cities in Chile you may come across the famous (or infamous) Café con piernas. This can literally be translated as "Coffee with legs".

What are Café con Piernas?

Well, it is just like a stand up coffee shop though the ladies that serve you the coffee happen to be wearing as little clothing as is legally possible. This includes bikinis, g-strings or some other type of provocative underwear.

You may think of this as "Coffee with a view". (The view happens to be some attractive lady in skimpy clothing).

These Café con Piernas are not all as seedy as they may seem. Only coffee is served, nothing alcoholic. Strangely enough, you will find these coffee shops filled with business men at any hour of the day, not necessarily after work or during lunch (I bet the boss doesn't know though).

Some do have one way mirrors so you can't see what may be going on inside from the street. In some suburbs they don't permit these to avoid dark and suspicious things from happening.

Rumors are that some Café con piernas sell more than just coffee and that some of the ladies would accept more than just tips. Though in reality most places are just coffee with a view where the women feel insulted if you even suggest the idea of anything more than coffee.

Baron Rojo was one of the most famous Café con piernas in Chile. Every now and then they had the 'minuto millonario' or the 'millionaire minute' where the ladies went topless for one minute. At the end of 2005 they closed their doors for the last time though they still have the Baron Rojo girls doing promotions in different cities, especially over summer.

For a while there was even a Café con piernas for women in Santiago though it wasn't as popular as the ones for the men. Someone also tried to establish a Café con piernas in Buenos Aires but for some reason it didn't really work out and the Café went out of business before long.

We realise that we don't have any photos of any of these coffee shops for now so I will eventually have to go out (hopefully soon) and take some photos of them (oh poor me!), of course only to cultural enlighten you... ;)

If you found this guide about Café con Piernas in Chile interesting or useful, let others know about it.