FOX 11 anchor Phil Shuman framed it as a simple question with an uncomfortable twist: is this a coffee shop, or is it a “front for something a bit steamier”?
In Garden Grove, residents have been saying for months that a business licensed as a café has been acting like an adult club, and in an exclusive report, FOX 11 investigative reporter Gina Silva said her team went undercover and captured what appeared to be exactly that – adult-style entertainment happening inside a place that, on paper, is supposed to be serving coffee.
Silva’s reporting put a sharp spotlight on the setting as much as the allegations, because this business sits just steps from La Quinta High School. The people raising the alarm aren’t just complaining about morality or taste – they’re saying the city’s own rules exist for a reason. Those rules weren’t being enforced until the story was already blowing up.
The result, at least for now, is a scramble of questions that Silva said still don’t have clear answers: what was the city doing, what were police doing, what exactly were people arrested for, and how does a place described by locals as an “open secret” keep operating for so long as if nobody has the authority to stop it.
Inside DD Café, The Undercover Video Shows More Than Coffee
Silva set the scene inside DD Café by describing a business that looks like a café from the outside and carries a coffee shop license, but allegedly operates with an entirely different menu once you’re through the door.
Her undercover footage, she said, captured women “wearing little clothing” giving lap dances to paying customers, with private sessions offered for an added fee, and the interactions weren’t subtle enough to be dismissed as a misunderstanding about what kind of “service” customers were expecting.
One moment Silva included from inside the business landed like a cold splash of reality, because it wasn’t coded language or flirtatious banter; it was a customer asking what they were paying for and a blunt reply: “80 for without clothes.”
Silva also reported that alcohol wasn’t sold there, but customers were told they could bring their own for a fee, which adds another layer to the “coffee shop” claim, because it suggests a setup that resembles a club environment even without a bar.
In the undercover clip she shared, the explanation was almost matter-of-fact: no bar, but you can bring your own alcohol, and there’s a charge—Silva described it as a small fee customers were told they could pay to do it, the kind of detail that makes the operation sound organized rather than accidental.
What made the situation feel even less hidden, Silva said, was the business’s own social media presence, because she reported that the account didn’t exactly disguise what was being sold, even while city records still showed the place licensed only as a coffee shop.
That gap – between the official paperwork and the public-facing behavior – is where the story shifts from “shocking undercover video” to “how did this slide by for so long,” especially in a city that has rules about where adult entertainment can operate.
Residents Say The Location Near A High School Changes Everything
Garden Grove resident Mytchell Mora told Silva what he believes people in the area have been whispering for a while: “It’s not even a coffee shop, it’s a strip club,” and in his view it’s not just a strip club, it’s “a strip club with no rules.”
Silva explained why Mora’s concern isn’t only about adult entertainment existing, because he made a point that sounded almost like a line drawn in thick marker: a coffee shop in the neighborhood is one thing, but putting this kind of operation right next door to a high school is something else entirely.
Mora told Silva he isn’t condemning every café in the area, and he even said there’s “nothing wrong” with coffee shops in Little Saigon and the Garden Grove area, but his tone changed when he talked about proximity to students, saying, when kids are involved, “that changes the perspective.”
Silva backed that up with the municipal rule at the heart of the complaint, reporting that under the Garden Grove Municipal Code, adult entertainment businesses are prohibited within 1,000 feet of any school facility.
That one measurement – 1,000 feet – turns the discussion into something less subjective, because the argument becomes less about somebody’s comfort level and more about whether the city is applying its own standards consistently.
Another Garden Grove resident, Lily Frey, told Silva she believes DD Café is part of a broader pattern, describing places like this as an “open secret” and saying bluntly that if you walk the street, you could “probably find 10 of them.”
Frey’s comment matters because it reframes the café as either an isolated problem that slipped through cracks, or a symptom of something larger where enforcement is selective, inconsistent, or simply delayed until public embarrassment forces action.
And that’s where this story starts to feel less like a one-off scandal and more like a test of basic local governance, because if the rule is real and the location is as close as residents say, the public naturally wonders why it took undercover video and headlines to trigger movement.
The Owner Was “Not Available,” And The City Was Silent
Silva reported that when FOX 11 tried to speak with the owner, a woman inside the business said she was in charge but told the team the owner wasn’t available, and the conversation went nowhere fast.
In Silva’s footage, the response wasn’t a detailed explanation of a misunderstanding or a willingness to clarify; it was essentially, you can’t be here, and the implication that FOX 11 had no right to keep asking questions on-site.
That refusal doesn’t prove anything by itself, but in the context Silva laid out – undercover video, a coffee license, a location near a high school – it feeds the impression that the business knew exactly how it might look under scrutiny and wanted that scrutiny gone.
Silva then pointed the camera toward the city itself, asking the question residents keep asking: if the permit allows only coffee shop operations, why was the City of Garden Grove allowing “adult style entertainment” to happen under that permit.
Mora’s answer to Silva was the kind of frustrated sentence people say when they feel stonewalled: “Everyone knows about it except no one’s doing nothing about it.”
Silva said Mora claims he complained to the city multiple times over the past year, and he believes his concerns were ignored, which is a serious allegation because it suggests the issue wasn’t just missed – it was flagged and still went nowhere.
Silva also said FOX 11 reached out directly, emailing the city on Tuesday, February 3, and again on Thursday, February 5, describing the undercover footage her team obtained, and she reported that they received no reply.
That silence became part of the story itself, because it’s hard for residents to believe officials are protecting the community when the community and the press say they’re getting “nothing” back – not even a basic statement acknowledging the complaint.
Shuman echoed that frustration on air after Silva’s segment, wondering why the city and police were being so “tight-lipped” and noting that if officials were doing something meaningful for the community, you’d expect them to want to talk about it.
Silva agreed with Shuman’s read of the situation and said she sent emails to several departments and even to city council contacts, and still got nothing, which left the impression that the city’s strategy was to wait it out – until, suddenly, it couldn’t.
Arrests, A Red Tag, And A Lot Of Unanswered Questions
Silva reported that later on Thursday night, after FOX 11’s outreach and after the undercover findings were described to the city, the Garden Grove Police Department announced that 17 people at DD Café had been arrested.
That announcement sounds decisive, but Silva made it clear that the details were missing, because police did not say what the 17 people were arrested for, and it was unclear whether any charges had been filed.
That gap matters, because in a case like this, the public doesn’t just want “arrests happened” as a headline; they want to know what laws were allegedly broken, who was responsible for what, and whether this is going to stick in court or fade away after a weekend of attention.
Silva reported another major development: the City of Garden Grove red-tagged the business, effectively closing it down.
When Silva asked what the red tag meant, she said she was told it could be for a range of issues, including safety concerns or code violations, which is informative but also vague enough to leave people guessing about what exactly triggered the shutdown.
Frey told Silva enforcement needs to go further, saying the city should “crack down on all of ’em,” which brings the conversation back to the bigger pattern residents claim exists beyond this one café.
Silva also made a point of saying FOX 11 requested more information and would update the story once details came in, which is important because it signals that the public still doesn’t have the core facts that normally settle debates – like specific charges, names, and a clear timeline of enforcement steps.
In the meantime, the story sits in an awkward place where residents feel vindicated by the arrests and closure, but also skeptical because the silence from officials makes it hard to believe the system worked the way it was supposed to.
Why This Case Feels Bigger Than One Business
Even if DD Café ends up being the only place like this that gets shut down, Silva’s report raises a question that always lingers after undercover investigations: how many similar operations can exist in plain sight when licensing and enforcement don’t match what’s actually happening inside.
When a city has a code that draws a bright line – like no adult entertainment within 1,000 feet of a school – residents assume that line is more than a decorative statement, because it’s meant to reduce risk, limit exposure, and keep adult businesses away from places where teens spend their days.
So when people like Mora say they tried to raise concerns for a year and felt ignored, it creates a kind of civic whiplash, where the public starts wondering whether the system responds to safety issues or only responds to embarrassment.
The other uncomfortable layer here is the “open secret” idea Frey brought up, because if residents believe these businesses are easy to find, it implies enforcement isn’t failing because it’s too hard – it’s failing because someone isn’t prioritizing it.
It’s also hard not to notice how often these stories follow the same rhythm: residents complain, nothing happens, media documents it, officials go quiet, then suddenly there’s action, and everyone pretends the action was always right around the corner.
If Garden Grove wants people to trust the process, the cleanest fix isn’t just arrests; it’s transparency, because silence creates a vacuum and that vacuum gets filled with suspicion, rumors, and the belief that rules apply only when the right person is watching.
Silva’s reporting didn’t just show what was allegedly happening inside a single business; it showed how fragile public trust becomes when residents feel like they’re shouting into a void, especially when the issue sits next to a high school and the city’s own code seems designed for exactly this kind of scenario.
For now, the red tag is on the door, the arrests have been announced, and the café’s “coffee shop” label is under a microscope, but the story won’t feel finished until the city and police explain what happened, what laws they believe were broken, and why it took this long for someone to finally step in.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
