A few months after opening, as summer heat invaded the small 70-square-foot (6.5 m2) shop, owner Lori Bowden adopted employee suggestions that they start a "Bikini Wednesday" promotion.

[26][27][28] Undercover police officers in Snohomish County, Washington, witnessed some baristas performing additional services for extra money, including letting customers touch them, photograph them, or watch them lick whipped cream off each other.

[5][30] In September 2009, five baristas at a Grab 'n Go in Everett were charged with prostitution after police surveillance caught them stripping and performing sexual acts for cash.

[32] In July 2011, the owner and three employees of Java Juggs in Edmonds, Washington, were charged with prostitution,[33] with the police later releasing some footage obtained.

[34] Everett (the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County) was temporarily enjoined against enforcing a dress code ordinance against bikini baristas in December 2017 by U.S. District Court Judge Marsha J. Pechman, who found it unconstitutionally vague, violated their freedom of expression under the First Amendment, and unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment since it primarily targeted women.

Mason County officials responded to complaints in the July 30, 2008 meeting by ruling the espresso stand is "erotic entertainment" and off limits in the Belfair area.

[43] In Yakima, Washington, a bikini bar owner was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and fined $1,000[44] because, at the coffee shop, the barista "wore shorts determined to be both too skimpy and too sheer.

[44] Some entrepreneurs have opened bikini barista stores with success outside the Seattle area, including in Raleigh, North Carolina,[46] Aurora, Colorado,[47] Portland, Oregon,[48] Youngstown, Ohio,[49] Tampa, Florida,[50] Pasadena, Maryland,[51] Chatsworth, Georgia,[52] Las Vegas,[53][54] Texas, and Missouri.

[62] In a column published in Sociological Images, the sociologist Lisa Wade used the bikini barista as a launching point for a discussion of the boundaries of sex work.