A butler café (Japanese: 執事喫茶, Hepburn: shitsuji kissa) is a subcategory of cosplay restaurant that originated in Japan. In these cafés, waiters dress as butlers and serve patrons in the manner of domestic servants attending to aristocracy. Butler cafés proliferated in reaction to the popularity of maid cafés and serve as an alternative category of cosplay restaurant intended to appeal to female otaku.

Maid cafés, where waitresses dress as maids to serve a primarily male clientele,^[1] achieved widespread popularity in Japan in the early 2000s.^[2] Butler cafés were conceived in response to their popularity, after entrepreneurs noted a rise in Internet message board postings from female otaku – devoted fans, particularly of anime and manga – who had a negative perception of maid cafés, and who sought a "role-reversing alternative" to them.^[2][3][4] Women expressed their desire for an establishment where they could seek male companionship in an environment that was less costly than a host club, and more romantic and safe than a nightclub.^[3] Butlers were chosen as a male counterpart to maids, and to appeal to fairy tale princess fantasies.^[3][5]

The first butler café, Swallowtail, opened in March 2005.^[6] Swallowtail is located on Otome Road, a major shopping and cultural destination for female otaku in Ikebukuro, Tokyo,^[4] and was founded by management consulting firm Oriental Corporation and the anime and manga goods chain K-Books.^[4] In 2006, the café Butlers Café opened in Shibuya, Tokyo.^[3][6] Founded by former office worker Yuki Hirohata, Butlers Café employed a staff composed entirely of Western men,^[7] and allowed patrons to practice English with the butlers.^[3][8] Butlers Café closed in December 2018.^[9] In 2011, the butler café Refleurir opened as the first butler café in Akihabara, Tokyo,^[10] before closing in 2013.^[11] Several dansō (cross-dressing) cosplay cafés with a butler theme operate in Akihabara, in which female servers dress as male butlers.^[12]

Outside of Japan, notable butler cafés include Chitty Mood, which operates out of Taipei City Mall in Taipei, Taiwan,^[13] and Lan Yu Guan European Tea Restaurant (formerly named Michaelis), which opened in North District, Taichung, Taiwan in 2012.^[14] In North America, Europe, and Oceania, pop-up butler cafés have been hosted at anime conventions, including Anime Expo in the United States,^[15] Hücon in Turkey,^[16] and SMASH! in Australia, which was the first anime convention to host a butler café.^[17]

Butler cafés have been cited as an example of the influence of anime and manga on Japanese culture and commerce, with fictionalized depictions of butler cafés in anime and manga having popularized them as a concept and made them major destinations for otaku tourists in Japan.^[24] Patisserie Swallowtail, a Swallowtail-branded pâtisserie, has produced limited-edition baked goods in collaboration with several popular franchises and outlets, including the anime series Tokyo Ghoul,^[25] Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun,^[26] and HenNeko;^[27] the video game series Danganronpa^[28] and Persona 3;^[29] and the department store Tokyu Hands.^[30] The anime series Beastars launched a pop-up butler café in 2019.^[31] Butler cafés outside of Japan serve a similar function of simulating Japanese culture for an otaku and Japanophile audience, with butler cafés in Taiwan using Japanese words in greetings, and hosting events such as yukata festivals and karaoke competitions.^[32] Butler cafés are further cited as representing the widening of cosplay, from a hobby that occurs exclusively in otaku spaces such as anime conventions, to an activity that occurs in public life.^[24]

Anime and manga scholar Susan J. Napier argues that butler cafés represent a widening of otaku culture to be inclusive of girls and women, but notes that the popularity of butler cafés does not necessarily represent a loosening of the culture's gender roles and expectations, stating that "maid and butler cafés, if anything, are reinforcing gender distinctions."^[2] Manga artist Keiko Takemiya "does not place great cultural significance" on butler cafés, but argues that they "allow Japanese women a chance to be served and escape their traditional role of serving men."^[2] Claire Gordon of Slate cites the all-Western staff of Butlers Café as functioning as a form of fantasy fulfillment, allowing its largely Japanese clientele to interact with a "hyperbolic, hypermannered extreme" of a stereotypical alluring Western male.^[33]

In 2006, Swallowtail reported serving more than 1,000 customers per month.^[4] Butlers Café reported having 2,000 regular customers at its peak,^[3] and 3,000 customers in its first month of operation.^[4] Swallowtail reports that 80 percent of their customers are female, with women in their 20s and 30s forming the majority of their clientele.^[4]

• Theme restaurant
• Happy Boys, a comedy series about workers at a butler café