Hooters, the restaurant chain famous for its wings and booty shorts, is opening a fast casual restaurant called Hoots. This new restaurant concept will diverge from Hooters, as it will have both male and female servers. And no, the male servers will not be shirtless.
When I first heard about this new Hooters restaurant concept, I immediately asked four of my guy friends if they would ever work at Hooters if it hired male servers. All of them asked, "Would male servers have to be shirtless?" I laughed because I hadn't even thought of that. So I looked more into it for them.
Hoots is going to be a new Hooters branded restaurant that will ditch the sexy outfits and be more inclusive. It's going to ditch the table service, and embrace a Chipotle style of ordering, reports Tampa Bay Times. The menu will be one page, featuring Hooters most popular menu items. You know those wings will be on it.
The first Hoots location will be located just outside of Chicago, in Cicero, Illinois. Rather than being served by women in booty shorts and tight tank tops, customers will walk up to a counter and order from both male and females, who will be dressed appropriately. Bummer? Was kind of hoping to fulfill my Magic Mike fantasies.
So with that in mind, I told my guy friends that no, they would not be shirtless. One lost interest right away, the other three said they wouldn't work there (shirt or shirtless) because Hooters doesn't appeal to the they don’t think that people go to Hooters to get served by guys. Fair enough.
But this new concept of Hoots is way different than the OG "breastaurant". It's fast casual and is supposed to be a quick service, grab your wings and run type of deal. I'm curious if people will still go to Hoots if it doesn't fall in line with its 34-year old brand. Isn't the appeal of Hooters the attractive servers in the skimpy outfits? Or is it the wings? We'll find out come mid-February when Hoots opens its doors.