Hooters opens in Beaverton; Police forbidden while on duty
I've always looked at Hooters and wondered what the fuss was about. Sure, the menu is to cuisine what soft core is to pornography, but methinks people really do protest too much. In our supply-and-demand world, Hooters is clearly selling something there is a market for- and believe me, it's not the food. Hey, if you're into fried everything, well, I suppose Hooters might be your kind of place, but the food is at best middle of the road.
So what, you may ask (as if you didn't already know), is the appeal? Well, in how many areas of your daily existence can you be closely attended to by scantily-clad attractive young women wearing orange butt shorts? (Certainly not in MY office...) Hooters Girls are trained to be solicitous, borderline salacious (and perhaps even a touch suggestive)- just enough to tap into the universal male fantasy that real women do in fact come with kneepads.
The first time I ever went to a Hooters, I was on a business trip to Atlanta. My client took me to a location in suburban Decatur. I'd heard of the chain, but I really didn't know all that much about it. I lived in Portland, OR, at the time and Hooters in the early '90s was still largely a phenomenon in the southeastern US. I was curious to find out what the fuss was all about, and, hey, it was a free dinner. Who was I to say no??
When we walked into the restaurant, we were seated at high table on bar stools. This struck me as rather odd, until our waitress arrived...and then it hit me- at about the same time I realized that I was staring straight down her substantial cleavage. AH HA!! Suddenly, the veils of ignorance had been removed from my eyes, and I knew the secret. How was the food? Who cared? Don't tell me you actually go to Hooters for the food? That's too much like reading Playboy for the quality of the writing. *snicker*
Hooters recently opened a location right here in Seabrook, in the shell of an old Busy Bee Restaurant that had struggled for years before finally going belly-up. Judging by the success of our Hooters, you'd never have any idea that the previous restaurant couldn't make a go of it. The parking lot at the Seabrook Hooters is almost alway full, mostly with trucks and motorcycles...I know; what a shock, eh??
Whodathunkit? Someone in America is making a living by trading in scantily clad and amply endowed sweet young things? What a concept....
I find myself profoundly ambivalent about the whole Hooters phenomena. I'm happy that our small little town has a successful business, and that can only be a good thing. Whether or not it is fomenting the objectification of women is an argument I frankly have little interest in pursuing, because the answer should be self-evident to any thinking person. If we were talking about a strip club, we might have a controversy worth discussing. A Hooters, though? Nah, I hardly think it's worth the energy it would take to get worked up over it.
Hey, if you're offended by Hooters, don't go. If enough people feel that way, eventually the company will get the message and change the way they do business. It's simple supply and demand. If you do like Hooters, just don't insult my intelligence by telling me it's for the wings. Or are you still going to insist that the "Penthouse" in your grocery bag has some killer articles in it this month??
