Quiet Entree of a Bold Eatery : Restaurants: Hooters, a controversial chain featuring scantily clad waitresses, is opening its Newport Beach location this week. Protests, which have hindered franchises elsewhere, are absent here.
A controversial restaurant chain that features chicken wings and scantily clad waitresses is set to open its first Orange County location on Balboa Peninsula this week.
Atlanta-based Hooters of America Inc., which has 138 Hooters restaurants in 37 states, said it plans to open five additional restaurants in Orange County in the next two years.
But it’s the moniker, not the menu, that has given Hooters its checkered reputation. Despite using an owl in its logo--the bird’s eyes make up the double O s in the restaurant’s name--the company readily acknowledges the double-entendre that many women consider offensive.
The principal attraction of the eateries is the Hooter Girls, as the food servers are called, who deliver baskets of Buffalo chicken wings and beer while wearing ultra-brief shorts and tied-up T-shirts emblazoned with expressions such as “More Than a Mouthful” on back. There are no Hooters boys--men are explicitly not hired as food servers but work as managers and in food preparation.
In most states it enters, Hooters rekindles the debate about the exploitation of women.
Hooters is aware of its image problem. But Hooters spokesman Mike McNeil said company officials don’t mind the ill-informed extremists who criticize the restaurant, because the publicity has only brought more business to the restaurants.
“These critics fall into two categories,” McNeil said. “One is people who have a politically correct agenda and don’t like things like the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, and the second is people who are not familiar with the concept and have been misinformed about what the restaurant really is.”
McNeil encourages the unfamiliar to visit one of the restaurants to see that it is not just a men’s bar. “Once they go to Hooters,” he said, “they will see that women go there and sometimes even families do.”
But that’s not what the families thought who live in the Los Angeles community of Westwood. Neighborhood groups battled to keep the restaurant from opening there, and though the company said it didn’t open there because of financing difficulties, the Friends of Westwood group takes the credit.
“We protested like crazy,” said Laura Lake, president of the organization. She said the group contacted lawyers to question the restaurant’s hiring policies and organized a band of elderly people and handicapped people to apply for jobs if it ever came to that.
“We are known for our commitment to our causes,” Lake said. “We planned on taking this to the courts just as we have done in the past.”
*
But similar protests have not surfaced in conservative Orange County.
“The city met us with open arms,” said Frank Fortson Jr., president of the company that has the Hooters franchise for this area. He said his company, Orange County Wings, had no problem lining up people willing to invest in the 6,000-square-foot restaurant, which opens Thursday.
Still, not everyone is pleased. “It is a shame that women are still being demeaned in this way,” said Annmarie Evans, coordinator of the North Orange County chapter of the National Organization for Women. “Why should women have to wear T-shirts that say ‘More Than a Mouthful’? What is the reason for that other than to degrade women?”
And some women’s groups wish it stopped at the T-shirts. But there are the popular Hooters girl calendars, which the stores sell. Even more offensive, some say, is that all Hooters restaurants have children’s menus and many are in shopping malls.
“They choose mainstream venues like malls and tourist spots, but they clearly do not belong there,” said Nicole Perlman, vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW. “They try to bill themselves as a family restaurant and they have a children’s menu to prove it, which is insidious.”
*
One reason that discussion of the Newport Beach Hooters has been muted is that no public hearing was mandated by the city because the owners are moving into a spot that was formerly occupied by a restaurant.
Even without a public meeting, the Friends of Westwood, which keeps a constant watch over proposed developments in the historic community, targeted the restaurant chain fearing its retail district’s image would be sullied if the bar and restaurant moved in.
“Westwood has a major university and one of the most important art museums in Los Angeles (the Armand Hammer Museum), and we did not think Hooters fit in,” Lake said.
Nor did many students on campus at UCLA. The school newspaper, the Daily Bruin, became a forum for campus debate on whether the Hooters should open and, though many students supported it, feminist groups were concerned that it promoted a degrading image of women.
Carol Nagy Jacklin, a professor of psychology at USC, said the concerns of groups like the Friends of Westwood are justified. She explained that people tailor their behavior to their environment.
“There is no question that when you allow people to be objectified they are treated less like individuals and more like objects,” Jacklin said. “And when they are no longer people, you can do whatever you want to them.”
*
Nine lawsuits have been filed against the chain by former employees who alleged that the atmosphere of the restaurant encouraged men, including patrons and fellow employees, to harass the female workers. Six of those suits have been settled, but the details are unknown. McNeil said he is prevented under the terms of the settlements from discussing their outcome. One lawsuit, filed in Florida, was dismissed and two are still pending in Texas.
Jacklin added that referring to minority groups as objects is one sociological factor that can generate an atmosphere in which violence against that group is accepted. “It is no different, but for some reason the objectification of women is still acceptable,” she said.
“There’s some flirting going on, which is fine,” said Hooters server Raquel Flores. The 22-year-old spoke during a jam-packed lunch hour at the Hooters in downtown San Diego, which opened in September. She said she’s glad that she has the lunch shift because the men in the dinner crowd typically drink more alcohol and some get more aggressive toward the servers.
Not that they discourage it. Waitresses touch and lean toward the customers as they serve and take orders. Despite these inducements, Hooters’ customers are not great tippers, Flores said. “They tip a little better than at a regular restaurant, but not much,” she said. “But you meet a lot of friendly people here.”
*
The lunchtime ambience has a decidedly blue-collar, male orientation. A dozen overhead TVs are tuned to ESPN all-sports network while the jukebox blares Eagles, Jimmy Buffett and other classic rock tunes. Nearby, a booth offers Hooters T-shirts and other souvenirs.
Not all the customers are adult men. Robert Campisi, 11, of San Diego got his father, Gary, to take him to Hooters for his birthday last week after a friend told him about the place. “Good hamburgers,” Robert said as waitresses walked by in their tight tank tops and orange satin shorts.
In Newport Beach, Hooters will take over the bay-side spot that for years belonged to the Red Onion and was a hub of social activity on the Peninsula. Since the Red Onion shut down in late 1993, business owners were concerned that the area had lost one of its major draws.
Business owners suggest that Hooters’ arrival is a sign that things are looking up in the area, which has suffered economically in recent years.
Even Woody’s Wharf, a 30-year fixture of the peninsula’s business district, said the addition of Hooters next door will only be good for its operation. “We will feed off each other and we will both do well,” said Ralph Furra, owner of the rival bar and restaurant.
Additionally, Fortson said he believes being near the Newport Pier will minimize any criticism from residents who might consider the Hooters’ theme distasteful.
“The people in the community are out with only their bathing suits on--they are often wearing less than the waitresses,” he said. “I don’t view that as a problem at all.”
Newport Beach Mayor John W. Hedges said he has heard from residents who were surprised to hear that Orange County’s first Hooters was coming to the wealthy beachside community, with its accompanying upscale image.
“There has been some concern about the way the peninsula is developing,” he said. “But so long as they are what they say they are--a responsible business--we won’t have any problems.”
*
Times staff writer Chris Kraul in San Diego contributed to this report.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Hooters of America Inc. at a Glance
* Founded: 1983
* Headquarters: Atlanta
* Chairman/CEO: Robert H. Brooks
* 1994 sales: $250 million
* Locations: 138 in 37 states
* Concept: Restaurant and bar serving medium-priced lunches and dinners. Food served by Hooter Girls in short-shorts and tight T-shirts.
Source: Hooters of America Inc.
Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
