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COSAFE 2.0
The other evening I passed by CHIJMES while making my way to the National Museum for Animation Festival 2007, when I saw the bustle outside that familiar corner. It wasn’t quite the way I remembered the last time I was there. It’s almost a year since it officially opened on 12 Dec last year.
WELCOME TO COSAFE 2.0!
“Cosafe Maid Cafe” (ｺｽｱﾌエ ﾒｲﾄﾞ ｶﾌエ) went through a re-boot at the end of October. The upgraded version is now called “Cosafe Maid Bar & Restaurant”. As the name change suggest, it’s no longer just a cosplay cafe. Other than the changes in the trade dress and facilities, the cast of cosplay meidos also changed their wardrobe.
Cosafe Maid Bar & Restaurant
The management re-designed the concept of their F&B business in order for Cosafe to maximise the true potential of its strategic location. For starters, they’ve created dining capacity within the shop-space. The piano had made way for more table and seats. They’ve also dimmed down the lights and added a bar. With that, they’ve repositioned their menu to be on par with the other F&B outlets at CHIJMES.
A well-stocked Bar, helmed by Meido Nana-chan
The drinks list is now more comprehensive. There’s now a separate menu for the drinks that offer from liquor to wine to mocktails. When I was there last night with Windbell and Cuz, Nana the veteran meido was manning the bar. We thought that her red-bowtie must be the Char-custom status.
For Aircrew
There’s even a drinks promotion for aircrew. According to Floyd, Happy Hour for drinks starts everyday from 2pm (!) to 6pm, with 20% off all alcohol. And yes, absinthe is on the drinks list too.
Cosafe still retained this framed illustration from the dating-simulation game “Pia Carrot”.
Pia Carrot 「Pia♥キャロットへようこそ!!」
In folk beliefs, all businesses have their patron deities. Perhaps this is the only totem that reminds Cosafe of their roots in otaku culture.
Cosafe also expanded their dining menu:
New Menu
All along, Cosafe had an award winning chef Desmond Png taking charge of the kitchen. The new menu allows Desmond to show off his culinary skills. If you’re worried about the long waiting time before your order arrives, that’s a thing of the past when Cosafe was a n00b to the F&B scene. The re-designed Cosafe now leverage on a POS system to expedite orders, as well as a new service point on the outside to speed up the delivery of dishes.
For the Monsoon Season
Cosafe has also added a tent at the alfresco area since it’s rainy during the monsoon season. As you can see, the place was still busy at 11pm in the evening. Can you spot the otakus nestled among the mainstream (ippanjin) crowd?
But of course, the limelight will always be on the cosplaying meido! Here are the two longest-serving meido from the original cast, Livia and Nana. Over the year, staff came and went but Livia & Nana remain as veterans from the original cast.
Livia & Nana
Ferlyn (witch cat), who’s away for her studies in Tokyo brought in the new costumes. Ferlyn observed that the staff at maid cafes in Japan do wear variants of the standard maid uniform, and wanted to introduce this concept to her cosplay restaurant too. The costumes that the Cosafe cast now wear, are authentic meido seifuku (メイド制服) imported from Japan. And there’s a lot more costumes that’s not on display that night, although there’s another pink variant on duty but was too shy for the camera.
Windbell, the lens-man
That’s Livia & Nana vogue-ing for Windbell. He’s taken alot more shots with his DSLR and the quality of the pictures are better than my compact digicam, you can check out the better quality pictures here.
1 YEAR OLD!!
Remember a time when people thought that Cosafe couldn’t make it, but they did. Next week, Cosafe will be celebrating her first year anniversary on 12 Dec (Wednesday). As part of the celebrations, Cosafe will be hosting a cosplay party. Cosafe will be turning out the entire platoon of meidos dressed in their finest. On that day, there will be a 20% discount off all checks. And for those who turn up in costume, there will be an additional 5% off.
Livia will be wearing the Izumi Sawatari (沢渡いずみ) costume from manga/anime series “He Is My Master” 「これが私の御主人様」:
Izumi Sawatari (沢渡いずみ)
Here’s how the costume will look like on a cosplayer:
Izumi Sawatari Cosplay
Kathleen, the director of Cosafe, had shown us Livia’s photo of her in Izumi’s costume on her iPhone. The three of us immediately bled buckets from our nose. So kindred, charge your batteries and clean your lenses. There will be a lot of eye candy that night. As part of the safety instructions, don’t forget to bring your FAD and ID tags in your left-breast pocket…in case you collapse from blood loss.
絶対領域
Nuff’ shown. You’ll be bedazzled by the moélicious AT (Absolute Territory) field. See the meido in the pink costume on the extreme right? She’s Sheryl. She was a little camera shy that evening because she’s traumatised by voyeurs who’re sneaking photos of her with their cameras. But her 「見ないで、恥ずかしい．．．」(don’t look, it’s embarrassing..), it’s simply…MOÉ!!!!!!!!!!
So fellow Otakus, make a date. I’ll see you there at Cosafe on Wednesday!!
