As you may know, cafés branch into different types of categories, and from those categories there are subcategories. And maid cafés are one of those subcategories.
What are maid cafés? You may ask.
Let's find out together shall we.
What are maid cafés?
They are a subcategory of cosplay cafés that are increasing in popularity around the world. The waitresses of these cafés dresses in maid outfits, acts like a servant, and refer their customers as masters or mistresses. The first maid café was settled in Akihabara Tokyo, Japan, at March 2001. That maid café is named "Cure Maid".
The History
Maid cafés started appearing in the early 2000s. Inspired by the local's fascination with anime and manga, these cafés were originally made to cater the otakus. These maid cafés took place in Akihabara, Tokyo famous for their inexpensive electronic shops. Due to increasing media attention, these places became a tourist attraction. Historically, following Japan's economic crash during the 1990s, people's idea of affection became more individualistic. As a resort, people who can't form healthy relationships with others sought to find other ways of filling the missing affection in themselves, and maid cafés became one of these solutions. Maid cafés are usually a place where an "otaku" finds themselves in.
Employees
The waitresses all dress up in cute anime style maid outfits. Usually young girls at the ages of 18 - 20 years old. These maids usually respect and even enjoy otaku culture themselves. Some even dreamed of becoming a maid in one of these cafés. Though this job tend to not be their careers but rather a way to deal with their current problems until they manage to find another somewhere else. Maids have their own separate identity from their real ones and they are not allowed to smoke or drink. These maids adopt different images or identities for work to fulfill the fantasies of their customers.
It is important for them to maintain their image in front of customers to be able to create and maintain their image.
Services
The services vary from different maid cafés, but they have the same core of what the services are. Usually, maids greet the customers with "Welcome master/mistress!" then give out the menus. The maids will perform something unique to each one of their characters. Maids will also sometimes decorate meals as the customers would like it to be. Customers can have a grooming session done by the maids, play games with the maids (rock-papers-scissors, card games, video games, etc.), arts & crafts, and sing karaoke.
