Men on the menu

William Gabriel, one of the male models hired by Caochang Huoguo hotpot restaurant, sweeps a female diner off her feet. (Photo: GT/Li Hao)

Restaurants employ male models as waiters to attract female diners

Each night, hundreds of mostly female customers queue patiently outside Caochang Huoguo, a hotpot restaurant in Beijing's Chaoyang district. They come not for the food, but the opportunity to be swept off their feet - sometimes literally.

The restaurant is staffed by a rotating roster of handsome international male models, hailing from Brazil, the US and the UK. Although they are technically waiters, occasionally serving drinks, it would be more accurate to describe them as entertainers.

On the evening Metropolitan visited the restaurant, the model for the night was a 30-year-old heartthrob from Brazil, William Gabriel. Naked from the waist up, he frolicked from table to table, flirting with various women, leaning in so they could give him a peck on the cheek. On more than one occasion he lifted them into his arms, to cheers and wolf-whistles from other customers.

"I think my job makes the girls happy and feel special," said Gabriel. "The girls come here, and there is some handsome guy [to] give them their beer and [other] things."

While such gimmicks have long been common in Japan and South Korea, where women can go to establishments known as "host clubs" to be charmed by good-looking men, in China, it is a new phenomenon.

Qin Shanqiang, the co-founder of the restaurant, said that it is a sign of greater equality for women, and a growing realization that women are just as fond of ogling handsome men as men are of beautiful women.

"Our business philosophy is to be a restaurant that caters to women," said Qin. "Women today are financially independent, they have spending power, and they are willing to spend money on things that make them happy."

What women want

Qin said the staff at the restaurant go to great lengths to please their female customers. Every female diner is given a complimentary bottle of Hoegaarden, and even the toilets are tastefully decorated with peach blossoms, he said.

"I believe that if we can get more women in the restaurant, the men will follow," said Qin, laughing.

He pointed out that it was not just in the restaurant industry that businesses were paying more attention to how they could attract women. Hollisters, a clothing label, has also started employing male models in its stores, and a recent Alibaba report showed that 40 percent of its sales volume was accounted for by products targeting women, such as cosmetics and women's footwear, Qin said.

Qin said that since opening three months ago, they have averaged around 400 customers each night.

Wang Na, a 34-year-old online shop owner from Beijing, was one of the customers at the restaurant on the night Metropolitan visited. She said when Gabriel came over to her table, she took the opportunity to ask him to feed her a slice of boiled mutton. "He's so handsome, and he's not lewd at all, even without his shirt on," Wang said. "When I traveled to London two years ago, I went to a restaurant with male models as waiters, but I didn't take any pictures because they weren't handsome."