Perky Cups

I, of course, felt duty bound to my loyal readers to go check out the new coffee place in an Aurora strip mall (pardon the pun).  Now why would anyone go all the way to Aurora for a cup of java?  Well this is the place that taps into the new trend started in a couple of Seattle coffee shops of baristas dressing in bikinis.  Perky Cups is the first in the Denver area of what appears to be a franchise.

The place was hard to find even with my navigation.  It is literally in the corner of a strip mall.  It has replaced an old Peaberrys and the sign for Perky Cups was literally taped over the Peaberry sign.  In fact, the first part had fallen off to reveal the “P” in the Peaberry sign. 

I ventured in.  The decor was passable modern coffee house style albeit a bit spartan.  I guess they invest in other things.  The pastries seemed store-bought.  The coffee machines did appear to be state-of-the-art, however (probably the old Peaberry ones).

The baristas were perky in the sense intended, and very cute, but the customer service was not perky.  The cashier asked me what I wanted and I asked what she recommended and she did not seem to like that query.  So I quickly ordered a latte macchiato.  Even a $1 tip did not seem to change her disposition.  The latte itself was clinically-made.  No banter between the baristas and the customers.  In fact, the baristas seemed absorbed in their own conversations and the making of the coffee seemed to impede that.  The conversations were too racy for me to describe here, but suffice to say it was a more adult version of high school gossip. 

The latte macchiato was ok.  Not worth a trip all the way to Aurora.  And unless the customer service improves, I don’t think I will be making a repeat visit.  Perky Cups could learn a thing or two from Tilted Kilt as to how to ensure its clientele comes back.  Without such lessons learned, Perky Cups is not likely to have a better fate than the Peaberrys.