If you're like me, your search for a comfortable coffee, tea, and waffle shop, in a location your wife will never find, has been ongoing and frustrating.

You'll know that the foundations of this cafe would have to be built on the pillars of "Coffee", "Animation", "Tea", and "Entertainment". And in your business plan, scribbled in the Notes section of a Magic:The Gathering rulebook, you've mapped out its soul -- you know -- in case the destiny and responsibility of opening such a shop fell to you: Party. Fashion. Enjoy. Interaction. Hotspot. Together. Happy. Smile.

Oh, and all the young waitresses would be dressed up like French maids. All the time.



Well, my friend, today we are both one step closer. Cate La Maid.

Cate La Maid (Coffee, Animation, Tea, and Entertainment) is the not first dress-up cafe in Shanghai. Yangpu has. Pudong had. But Cate La Maid is the only one in prime nerd position, hidden, as it is, on the fourth floor of an electronics mall. It is like Hooters for the shy gamer, without all that gaudy orange.

Immediate neighbors include Qigame, selling joysticks and steering wheels for driving games, a stall selling World of Warcraft figurines, and a bunch of hard drive shops. Heaven. There is not an estrogen in sight, except for the waitresses in French maid outfits and leggings. (Some of them wear shorts under their skirts.)

The primary draw here is, of course, the waffles.



Like the tea and the clientele, they come in all kinds of deliciously fruity flavors. In order of decreasing attraction, the rest of Cate La Maid breaks down like this: cheese-cake, coffee, amateur anime drawings, wi-fi, whipped cream, ham sandwiches, fashion, party, together, and then girls in French maid outfits who, as part of their job, play fantasy card games with the customers.

Toughs also make up a segment of the customer base, computer-parts-selling toughs, with asymmetrical hair and dangerously sharp bangs. Yesterday, a group of them was sitting around, being tough, smoking cigarettes, ordering waffle after waffle and eating them in a tough way - stuck on the end of fork, and nibbled from all sides. But the girls know how to diffuse the situation with a laugh and a curtsy and some made-up Japanese phrases.

There's room for all of us at Cate La Maid.

Finally. Finally.



Cate La Maid is on the fouth floor of Buynow Shopping Mall. More info and a map here.

All pictures, actual shots of Cate La Maid and its lovely employees, courtesy of Cate La Maid's manager's personal collection.

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