The store's manager, however, said he was not sure how the tradition arose. Cafe owner Josephina Y. Perez grew up in Pamplona, Spain, but "it certainly isn't Pamplona tradition," Timberlake says. "I remember Josephina saying that there have always been female servers there."

And patrons at the cafe yesterday said they believed the change had not damaged the cafe's ambience.

"It's a welcome change," said one sixth-year graduate student in history who frequents the cafe who did not wish to be identified. "It doesn't make for a different atmosphere. It's the same old place."

Despite the discriminatory nature of the restaurant's earlier policy, Elizabeth Bartholet '62, Wasserstein Public Interest Professor at Harvard Law School, said the restaurant might have had legal grounds to defend the practice.

The cafe could have claimed "a defense for sex discrimination...on the basis of authenticity," said Bartholet. "The result would depend on the court. That claim has been made before, but it's a pretty narrow defense."

Bartholet also said Cafe Pamplona might have too few employees to be covered by federal and state anti-discrimination law.

And the cafe may have been able to hire only male waiters for years because the restaurant was too small for its hiring policies to have attracted much notice, Bartholet said.