Seattle-based bikini barista company under investigation makes plans for reality show

Baristas Coffee Company, a Seattle-based chain of bikini espresso stands announced Friday intentions to launch a reality TV show.

Baristas is the same operation that KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators exposed last February for not paying all of its baristas, despite state orders to do so.

The company has posted an early cut of the reality show to YouTube. The final version will be produced by the same L.A. company behind the poker show Million Dollar Challenge. There’s no word yet on when it will air.

The show won’t just be about the scantily clad baristas, but the management.

"It is a lot of work to build a business and it is not always fun,” Baristas CEO Barry Henthorn told KIRO 7 in a phone call Friday, referring in part to Amy Clancy’s consumer investigation. “Often times it can be downright painful. You get up every morning, put everything you have on the line, move forward and sometimes that is a difficult thing.”

For about a year and a half, Clancy has been following the company and investigating claims that it didn’t always pay some of its employees. It all started when a number of workers at Baristas told Clancy they weren’t being paid. During KIRO 7’s first investigation in February, we reported that workers didn’t always get their paychecks. When they did, the paychecks weren’t always signed and when they were signed, the checks often bounced.

Clancy learned the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries investigated 16 such complaints. L&I then ordered Henthorn to pay some of those employees and pay fines.

Asked if the company planned to pay the workers back, Henthorn said, “Absolutely. We’ve been through complete compliance on it. We’ve outsourced payroll services now.”

Late Friday afternoon, L&I told KIRO 7 that Baristas made immediate arrangements to pay back the $2,381.92 it still owes employees. Shortly before KIRO 7’s Friday evening newscast, we received word from the state that the payment went through and workers will be paid.

“We’ve learned a lot from the process, learned from it,” Henthorn said. “We’ve taken our lumps (and) as a result, we are stronger than we were.”

There’s also a federal complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of 45 Baristas employees. The feds are suing for back wages, damages and more than $42,000 in penalties.

Henthorn didn’t speak directly to the federal complaint.