This article is about the two restaurant chains collectively using the shared Hooters brand. For other uses, see Hooters (disambiguation). Hooters is the trade name of two privately held American restaurant chains: Hooters of America, Incorporated, based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Hooters, Incorporated, based in Clearwater, Florida.
Hooters targets male customers with a serving staff comprising only waitresses, although Hooters does employ males as cooks, hosts (at some franchises), busboys, and managers. The menu includes hamburgers and other sandwiches, steaks, seafood entrees, appetizers, and the restaurant's specialty, chicken wings . Almost all Hooters hold alcoholic beverage licenses to sell beer and wine, and where local permits allow, many offer a full liquor bar. Ancillary offerings for sale include T-shirts and various souvenirs and curios.
Between company owned locations and franchises, there are now more than 435 Hooters restaurants in 46 U.S. states and 23 other countries,[1] including Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Israel, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Croatia, Chile, Australia, Panama, Costa Rica, China, South Korea, Greece, Venezuela, Spain, Switzerland, and Singapore - its first overseas location to open. Hooters plans to open its first branch in Dubai and Guam in 2008.[2] A Hooters was opened in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands in December 2007.[3]
History
Hooters, Inc. began operations on October 4, 1983 with a restaurant in Clearwater, Florida. (Although a reference to " a building that allegedly was previously a walk-in dumpster called Fernando's Dumpster, Inc." appears in the Hooters menu, it is false. The Original Hooters took the place of a failed seafood restaurant. In fact, so many businesses had failed in that particular location that Hooters' founders built a small "graveyard" at the front door for each of the businesses that had come before them.) [4]
In 1984, Robert H. Brooks and a group of Atlanta investors (operators of Hooters of America, Inc.) bought expansion and franchise rights for the Hooters chain. In 2002, Brooks bought majority control and became chairman.[5] The Clearwater-based company retained control over restaurants in the Tampa Bay Area, Chicagoland, and one in Manhattan, New York,[6] while all other locations were under the aegis of Hooters of America, which sold franchising rights to the rest of the United States and international locations.[7] Under Brooks's leadership, the collective Hooters brand expanded from one restaurant to more than 425 stores worldwide. Brooks died in July 2006 of a heart attack.[8]
The Hooters Casino Hotel was opened February 2, 2006 off the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. This hotel has 696 rooms with a 35,000 square foot casino. The hotel is owned and operated by 155 East Tropicana, LLC (Florida Hooters, LLC 66.67% & EW Common, LLC 33.33%). It is located off of the Las Vegas Strip next to the Tropicana and across the street from the MGM Grand Las Vegas. It is the only "Hooters"-branded operation that is not operated by Hooters of America.citation needed It is not, however, the only Hooters facility offering overnight accommodations. The Hooters Inn is located in Lakeland, Florida.[9]
As part of their 25th anniversary, HOOTERS Magazine released their top HOOTERS girls of all time. Among those best 25 known were Lynne Austin, the late Kelly Jo Dowd (mother of golfer Dakoda Dowd), Bonnie-Jill Laflin, Leeann Tweeden, and Holly Madison.[10]
Hooters Girls
Hooters Calendar Girl Melissa Poe
A Hooters Girl at their Singapore restaurant.
A Hooters Girl is a waitress employed by the Hooters restaurant chain. They are instantly recognizable by their uniform of a white tank top with the Hooters owl logo and the location name on the front paired with the famously short orange runner's shorts. Originally, the shirts were white cotton, pulled tight and knotted in the back to emphasize the breasts. For years, this knot tying was a Hooters ritual before opening. Later, Hooters changed to a tight white spandex shirt that eliminated the knot-tying. Waitresses also have a choice of shirts that are more suitable for cold weather. The company also began using other colors and designs for their tops such as a camouflage theme on Monday ("Military Mondays"), black on Friday ("Formal Fridays"), and the football uniforms of a local NFL team during the NFL season, yet this varies from state to state. The two uniforms handed out at employment date is a black uniform and the white, the black being worn usually all day Sunday and Monday night for football and Tuesday/Thursday for basketball. The remainder of the Hooters Girls' uniform consists of the restaurants panty hose, white "scrunch" socks, and clean white shoes. Men who work at Hooters wear Hooters hats, shirts with long pants, Bermuda shorts, or attire more suitable for cooking.
Employee handbook requirements
The Smoking Gun website obtained a copy of the Hooters Employee Handbook[11] which notes that:
- Customers can go to many places for wings and beer, but it is our Hooters Girls who make our concept unique. Hooters offers its customers the look of the "All American Cheerleader, Surfer, Girl Next Door."
Female employees are required to sign that they "acknowledge and affirm" the following:
- My job duties require I wear the designated Hooters Girl uniform.
- My job duties require that I interact with and entertain the customers.
- The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and sexual innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace.
- I do not find my job duties, uniform requirements, or work environment to be offensive, intimidating, hostile, or unwelcome.
Public perception
Controversy
The chain is controversial on two counts:
The uniform is considered by some to be an objectification of women. The general environment of the restaurant is seen by many people as sexist and demeaning to women. The chain is also frequently criticized by those who object to the restaurant's theme, in one case causing a Hooters in Vienna, West Virginia to close.
The restaurant hires only women as servers, and refers to them as "Hooters Girls". Several discrimination lawsuits brought against the chain by men wishing to be employed as servers have been settled out of court or dropped by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), some after an advertising campaign featuring St. Petersburg, Florida Hooters' kitchen manager Vince Gigliotti dressed in a Hooters Girl uniform. Men do find employment at Hooters as cooks, dishwashers, and managers where most wear Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirts, and similar garb.
The company's website acknowledges that "many consider 'Hooters' a slang term for a portion of the female anatomy," but it adds, "Hooters Girls have the same right to use their natural female sex appeal to earn a living as do supermodels Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell."
The chain has changed its focus in the past decades. When Hooters began, it was thought of as mainly men, but now it is a "neighborhood, family-friendly restaurant". Now offering kids menus, family sections (nonsmoking), kids eat free Wednesdays, and children's birthdays are very regular. Hooters Girls are now trying to erase the stereotype of putting women down and demeaning to women.
Public relations
Hooters has an extensive public relations campaign and has actively supported charities through its Hooters Community Endowment Fund, also known as HOO.C.E.F., a pun on UNICEF. It has provided money and/or volunteers to charities such as Habitat for Humanity, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, and Muscular Dystrophy Association.[12] In addition, after the death of Kelly Jo Dowd, a former Hooters Girl on the cover of the Hooters calendar in 1995, and later a restaurant general manager, Hooters began a campaign against breast cancer, with awareness of the issue being spread through the Kelly Jo Dowd Fund. Local restaurants will often select their own local charities.
Hooters also launched what it calls "Operation Let Freedom Wing," which involves sending its celebrities, such as Hooters Calendar Girl, UC3 and singer Angela Lanza, to visit U.S. troops overseas, including to Afghanistan.
Athletics & promotions
Hooters is very involved in the sports world. Previous sponsorships include the Miami Hooters, a now defunct Arena Football League team. Hooters currently sponsors the USAR Hooters Pro Cup, an automobile racing series and the NGA Hooters Tour, a minor league golf tour. In 1992 Hooters sponsored NASCAR Driver Alan Kulwicki as he won the Winston Cup Championship, beating Bill Elliott by ten points, the closest margin in NASCAR prior to The Chase era. Ironically, the race was called the Hooters 500, which it remained until 1994.
Hooters has also licensed its name for the Hooters Road Trip PlayStation racing game as well as Hooters Calendar mobile wallpaper application. Oasys Mobile will also be putting out several other games for mobile consumption based on the Hooters Calendar license in 2008.[13]
Professional golfer John Daly is sponsored by Hooters on the PGA Tour. He also serves as a corporate spokesperson. Dick Vitale (college basketball analyst) is also a sponsor of Hooters
Since 1996, Hooters has held Miss Hooters International.
Parody
The South Park episode Raisins parodies the Hooters restaurant chain. The restaurant is called Raisins and the outfits of the girls and the insides of the restaurant are very similar to that of Hooters.
King of the Hill had their version called Bazooms.
The Simpsons had their version called Knockers.
Roseanne had their version called Bunz.
The Chaser's War On Everything parodied Hooters as 'Dongers' in one episode.
The Man Show had their version called Beavers.
See also
References
External links
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