In the annals of coffee culture, 2016 will go down as the year of the stunt café – with various iteration from cat, penguin, hedgehog, and owl cafés having made headlines all over the world as patrons flock to the unusual tea rooms. But now a Swiss firm based in Geneva come under considerable criticism, with its plans to offer oral sex to customers while they wait for their lattes.
The concept has been percolating for some time, Bradley Charvet of Facegirl, an escort agency based in Geneva, recently told the Swiss newspaper Le Matin.
“Studies have demonstrated that men perform better at work after having been satisfied during the morning,” Charvet said.
The Swiss café is inspired by similar venues in Thailand, and Chavret wants to add something extra to sex trade in Switzerland, where prostitution is regulated and has been legal since 1942.
In an effort to control people trafficking, Swiss sex workers must have valid permits and in premises where two or more work, the building must be registered as a massage parlour.
Each city strictly enforces the laws, with Geneva shutting down more than 30 such parlours last year for failing to abide by the rules, according to The Local.
Charvet envisages male patrons ordering coffee and sex workers from the menu, with the entire transaction lasting 10 minutes and costing 60 Swiss francs (€55), making the coffee the most expensive in the city.
Representatives of anti-prostitution groups have expressed their concern with the proposed café.
Grégoire Théry, who represents the French organisation ‘Mouvement du Nid’ said that the business, which would see men choosing sex worker from a list on an iPad, effectively decriminalises pimping.
“[The sex trade] is a real business and this sex café is making the most of that. This would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it is just a part of a broader logic. They know very well that is this provocative,” Théry told L’Express newspaper.
Geneva’s Department for Security and the Economy is currently considering the café and will rule on its plans at a later date.
