photos by dale dombrowski/viewTop, baristas Brooklyn, left, and Vicious (baristas do not use their real names) chat with customer Subramanian Swaminathan of Henderson at the walk-up window at Sexxpresso, 670 E. Flamingo Road, March 14. Bottom left, a sign on the building at Sexxpresso proclaims it the "hottest coffee in Vegas." Right, Brooklyn pours a white chocolate coffee drink.
photos by dale dombrowski/viewTop, baristas Brooklyn, left, and Vicious (baristas do not use their real names) chat with customer Subramanian Swaminathan of Henderson at the walk-up window at Sexxpresso, 670 E. Flamingo Road, March 14. Bottom left, a sign on the building at Sexxpresso proclaims it the "hottest coffee in Vegas." Right, Brooklyn pours a white chocolate coffee drink.
photos by dale dombrowski/viewTop, baristas Brooklyn, left, and Vicious (baristas do not use their real names) chat with customer Subramanian Swaminathan of Henderson at the walk-up window at Sexxpresso, 670 E. Flamingo Road, March 14. Bottom left, a sign on the building at Sexxpresso proclaims it the "hottest coffee in Vegas." Right, Brooklyn pours a white chocolate coffee drink.
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The building at 670 E. Flamingo Road was hard to miss even before Sexxpresso proprietor Dennis Morrison bought it, but it's a real show and traffic stopper now. Last year, the building was vacant, but the coffee cup-shaped structure with a giant spoon handle poking out the top still drew in curious onlookers.
In December, Morrison and his partner, Mossimo Catenella, remodeled it, adding a scantily-clad, life-sized female figure sitting on top of the spoon handle, and painted Sexxpresso, the name of the new business, across the building in big, bold letters.
"It's a fairly unique building," said Morrison. "It was built in '01, and it's the only one that company built. Their plan was to start a chain of them and build them across the country."
Morrison said that the building has been vacant more than it's been open since it was built. In its various incarnations, the building has spent short periods of time as an ice cream parlor and a coffee shop or two. "The building is built to hurricane standards, the walls are 2 feet thick," Morrison said.
Sexxpresso certainly isn't the first, and probably won't be the last, business to use sexiness as a marketing tool in Las Vegas, but it's certainly one of the more unique. What separates Sexxpresso from other coffee shops is its "bodacious baristas," young women dressed in lingerie serving coffee and smoothies from its drive-through and walk-up windows. The shop does not offer inside seating.
"People are sometimes surprised when they come up," said Sydney (baristas at Sexxpresso do not go by their real names), who often works with her best friend River. Sydney is a Las Vegas native who spent a few years in Los Angeles as an actress in independent films before returning to the valley recently.
"It's a lot of fun; you get to meet a lot of people and hear a lot of crazy stuff," she said. "Sometimes, you've got to be a bartender. You know, we have regulars."
River, who previously worked in public relations in the music industry, said of Sydney, "She has a fan club."
It's Morrison's first venture into the coffee business, after having spent the previous 30 years as a photographer.
"I did some work for Gov. Bob Miller and (Las Vegas Mayor) Oscar Goodman," he said. "Mostly, I've done corporate work for the last 12 years."
Oddly enough, the inspiration for Sexxpresso was Morrison's mother. She had seen a story about a coffee shop run out of trailers in the suburbs of Seattle and pointed it out to him.
"The girls in the summertime a couple years ago were just getting too hot in those trailers because there was no air conditioning," Morrison said. "So, the boss agreed to let them wear bikinis and such, and they noticed quite a rise in business."
Morrison's mother suggested that Las Vegas needed a sexy coffee shop. "I said, 'yeah we do,' so I opened one," Morrison said. "I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm not afraid."
He says the licensing wasn't a problem. "It raised some eyebrows," he said. "Nevada has the second toughest health code requirements after California, so we made sure everything was up to those codes. They've been out here," he said of the health department, while pointing out the shop's "A" certificate posted on the wall.
"They're well aware of us; we do everything by the book. We're here to make friends, not enemies."
Morrison said after he came up with the idea for the shop, he needed a partner who knew something about coffee. That's where Cantonelli comes in.
"So that's why I brought in my business partner, Mossimo (Cantonelli). His family has built and sold seven successful Italian restaurants between Miami and Las Vegas. He's got a heavy coffee background."
The shop currently employs nine baristas and is open Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Morrison and Cantonelli have plans to expand the business to Fremont Street within the next two months and the Strip within three months.
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