When the Weekly Volcano World Headquarters received a hot tip about hotties in a coffee shack called the Hot Hut, I was skeptical. Sure, the girls on the Web site (www.thehothut.com) look pretty good in their studio shots, but they couldn’t possibly be that scantily clad in person, could they?

On a mission to find out (and to see how the coffee would taste) I discovered a really nice, really hot chick in a completely different hot hut, not two miles from the actual Hot Hut.

Lakewood’s Hot Chick-a-Latte, open about three weeks, has a bucket for tips (their new bikini fund) and several cup sizes, with the perky question, “How big do you like ‘em?”



Mandi Lott, the barista serving it up hot in black lacy lingerie, was quite happy to serve me my 130-degree nonfat tall latte, and as we chatted about the creepy guy factor, she laughed that she’d steamed my milk too hot.



I thought that was appropriate; this was not, after all, the “Lukewarm-chick-a-Latte.”

Lott asserted that, yes, there were the creeps, but that sort of character comes along with any coffee-stand job (and, she says, she’s worked at many).



Eager to compare and contrast the Hot Hut experience, I drove my caffeinated and twitchy self down Steilacoom Boulevard to the base of Phillips Road, street of my youth, and saw a bright coffee stand adorned with fishing nets and other nautical paraphernalia.



Inside, Aree greeted me in a naughty nautical shirt.



Her smile was equally attention grabbing as her top, and she was warm and open with me as we chatted about the creep factor — not many — the moralists —  “yeah we get some,” — and the hut environment.



Turns out, both the Hot Hut and Hot Chick-a-Latte are well heated inside, verging on too hot as the steam gets rising. But the catty girl factor, at lease at the Hot Hut, is minimal, according to Aree, who says, “It’s really fun, everybody’s pretty awesome here.”



Aree’s barista experience has been limited to her time at the Hot Hut, (about four months) but I was very pleased to note that the 130-degree cuppa’ joe that she served up was every bit as good as the one I bought from Lott.



I was hoping to make some kind of world-altering comparative observation, like, “Endicott beans (served at Hot Chick-a-Latte) have more acid in them, while the Dillano’s beans (served at the Hot Hut) end with a slightly nutty finish,” but in point of fact, I couldn’t tell the difference, one cup to the next. The acid was well balanced by the smoky nuttiness, and the milk was steamed perfectly at both places (not too foamy.)



I even did the slightly disgusting cold coffee test, where I allowed both cups to sit and cool completely, and then sipped: still, remarkably similar.



Tasty, even.



[Hot Chick-a-Latte, just north of Bridgeport Way S.W. and Custer Road, Lakewood]



[Hot Hutt, 7501 Steilacoom Blvd., Lakewood]