With a wing – or wings – and I’m sure a prayer or two, six fun-loving gentlemen in Clearwater, Fla., got together and created what became a men’s cultural icon called Hooters.
They essentially took the guessing game out for guys going to a bar, and that is to be in a place with good-looking bartenders and waitresses. At other places, it can be hit or miss. At Hooters, it was pretty much guaranteed.
It spawned several imitators – the Tilted Kilt, Twin Peaks and others – and while Tilted Kilt keeled over in 2018, Twin Peaks still operates bars and in 2001, was sold to Fat Brands for $300 million. And now Hooters has announced that it might be filling Chapter 11 bankruptcy and I kind of found out why when I went into one recently thinking it might be my last chance to relive some fond memories of the place.
In its prime, with its hey-these-guys-are-cool “Delightfully Tacky, Yet Refined” and “More Than A Mouthful Is A Waste” slogans, it was a Florida phenomenon, later expanding to most states and even to other countries. Hooters was where a beautiful girl you would have no chance with in real life would sit down and chat with you for a few minutes before skipping off to the bar or kitchen to put in your order.
I was never foolish enough to think I had a chance with any of those girls – and even if I did, I lived 3,000 miles away in California so what good would it have done me – but it was a nice place to flirt for a bit and practice my verbal skills for the “real” girls I would encounter later in the bars.
And thus, I admit I went into Hooters a few times. Pretty much whenever I was in Florida because Hooters was as much of a part of the Florida landscape as big fishing boats, the beaches, hot sunshine and afternoon thunderstorms. It was almost like visiting Paris and not going to the Eiffel Tower.
Mostly, I would go there before returning home to California, my lunch-and-beer stop before getting on a plane. One time, this plan almost backfired.
It was in Orlando and I sat down at the bar. The bartender was so stunning, yet so engaging, that I lost all track of time. When I finally looked at my watch, I realized my plane left in half an hour! Fortunately, I had paid my tab so I rushed out the door. The airport was about 10 minutes away but I still had to return the rental car. I pulled up to the Skycap – 20 minutes to go, still enough time – and asked him what I should do about getting the car back to the rental agency.
“Just leave it here and pop the hood,” he calmly said, almost as if this was routine to him. “I’ll watch it for you and then you call the rental company and tell them it broke down.” I put some cash in his hand and dashed inside. Fortunately, I breezed through security – 10 minutes to go – and called the rental company as I ran to my gate. “No problem, thanks for letting us know,” the rental car person said.
Hey, it worked! (By the way, I have never used that trick again, tho it remains in my hip pocket thanks to that way-cool Skycap.)
I got to my gate just as the agents were about to shut the door. I sprinted onto the plane, calmly walked to my seat and then did what everyone does when we barely make a flight: I let out a HUGE sigh of relief and said to myself, with a bit of self satisfaction, “made it!”
Another time, again before flying back to California, I had such a good time in Hooters with the server, the other girls and other patrons, that I got a pretty good buzz. One that carried me all the way to L.A. (Well, okay, with an assist from a couple of drinks in flight.) My girlfriend at the time was meeting me at the airport and I had gotten her a Hooter’s t-shirt. Not being from Florida she didn’t know what it was and thanked me for thinking of her while I was away.
She put it on and we went into a bar. She failed to notice it said “more than a mouthful” and being rather healthy up top, she was getting a lot of interesting looks from people in the bar. Eventually, she saw the slogan, got angry with me and changed shirts. She never wore it again.
Those are my two best laugh-at-them-now Hooters memories. And from what I saw after my most recent visit then I won’t be having any more of them. Unless there’s still a good one or two in Florida.
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