Abstract

The average cup of coffee is just over $1 US, yet this relatively inexpensive drink, encompasses cultural, social, and spatial dimensions throughout our cities. This article explores atypical coffee shops that exist predominantly in Santiago, Chile, in a variety of urban spaces — the cafés con piernas. What could be considered ‘adult’ or classified as restricted premises, these alcohol-free venues tout a combination of mediocre coffee and an erotic ambience designed to promote a subtle, sexual frisson between client and waitress. Findings presented here identify geographies of the cafés con piernas in Santiago as significant cultural markers in the city’s landscape and offer a complex typology of the cafés that are defined by subtle nuances dictated by their geographical location. In seemingly sexualised spaces in the city, an investigation of the cafés con piernas can offer greater understanding of culturally significant, yet often unnoticed, remnants of a city’s historical political past. These findings present an original theoretical classification of adult entertainment premises in a city’s urban and (sub)urban sexscape.