French maid at your beck and call at ‘Versailles Maid Café’

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JAPANESE POP CULTURE: Be treated like ‘goshujin-sama’ (master) and ‘ojou-sama’ (princess) by ‘Versailles Maid Café members who role-play as maids at Swinburne University.

KUCHING: Social circles here can enjoy the high life of Japanese pop culture in the form of a ‘maid café’ this coming Sept 20-21.

‘Versailles Maid Café’ will be making its appearance at Swinburne University’s Block G Auditorium from 11am to 2pm.

Despite the name, Versailles Maid Café is not a real brick-and-mortar cafe.

It is a mobile concept cafe, founded by a group of local enthusiasts who role-play as maids in an effort to create the experience of Japanese maid cafes as featured in anime (Japanese animation) and manga (Japanese comics) series.

Maid characters are common in many series and they wear the kind of attire based on the design of a Victorian-era French maid costume. This includes a dark-coloured dress, petticoat, pinafore, stockings and ribbon head-gear.

A maid-to-order experience is not so much food-centric but touts the unique service, which emphasises Old World courtesy given a ‘kawaii’ (cute) twist.

According to maid coordinator Cherdass Dunamos, it will be a fun experience for event goers, who can expect to be treated like ‘goshujin-sama’ (master) and ‘ojou-sama’ (princess).

“Event goers will have the experience of being welcomed, greeted and served like royalty, just as they would be in an actual Japanese maid café.

“They are also allowed to take photos with the maids after their meal.

“There is no entry fee for the event, but event goers must buy at least one meal set to enter. The meal sets are priced affordably. There will be three dishes served, including ‘omuraisu’ (omelet rice) and cakes, as well as tea and coffee.

“Our team will try our very best to make it a worthwhile experience,” he said, adding that for this particular two-day event, four of its members will take on the role of the maids.

Versailles Maid Cafe was founded in 2011 and made its public debut a year ago during Anime Gathering, an annual non-profit anime, comics and games (ACG) event.

Since then they have been invited to many other ACG-related events in Kuching.

The team members are also preparing themselves for Anime Gathering 2013, which will be held Oct 27.

For more information, surf the official Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/VersaillesMaidCafe.