Japanese butler cafés
The central concept of a butler café is that the customer is treated as an aristocrat who has returned to their home for
tea, where they are waited on by a personal butler.
[7] While maid cafés typically promote the physical attractiveness of the servers as their major selling point, butler cafés devote significant resources to environment, ambiance, and high quality service.
[4] Customers are "welcomed home" upon entering and referred to with honorary titles, with female customers referred to as
ojōsama ("
milady") or
ohimesama ("princess")
[1] and male customers as
bocchan ("young lord") or
dannasama ("master").
[18]
High-quality food is served – the menu of Swallowtail, for example, was developed by Paul Okada, the food and beverage director at the
Four Seasons Tokyo[5] – and the interior of the restaurant is typically designed to resemble an
English country house or
manor house with imported and custom furniture.
[4] Butlers may even take the time to inform the customer of the style of the decor and thoroughly describe the items on the menu.
[18] English-style
afternoon tea is the most commonly-served food at butler cafés, including cakes, scones, sandwiches, and tea served in fine
porcelain cups,
[1][18] which may also be the café's own custom ceramics.
[18]
Men employed as butlers can be as young as 18 or as old as 80,
[4][18] and receive extended training in tea preparation,
etiquette, and restaurant service standards.
[18][4] The training process at Swallowtail takes several months, and requires applicants to pass a test based on hotel restaurant standards.
[18] Job titles for butlers correspond to those of household staff, including "
house steward" for the most senior manager and "
footman" for servers.
[19] Butlers also occasionally appear in musicals, stage plays and concerts organized by the café, and sell souvenirs and CDs.
[19]
Photography is typically not permitted in butler cafés, though Butlers Café offered it as an additional service: services offered included the "Lift Me Up Photo", where a photo is taken of the butler physically lifting the customer; "Cinderella Time," where the customer receives bubbles, a tiara, and a silver bell on a platter; and "Study English," where customers receive a notebook to exchange notes in English with their butler during each visit.
[8] Butler cafés typically enforce a
code of conduct for employees and customers that forbids certain activity, such as the exchange of personal information or meetings outside of the café space.
[8][20]