Eatery Hasn’t Opened Yet and Already Stew Is Bubbling : Restaurants: Hooters chain to debut in Newport Beach. Its moniker and trappings rekindle debate over exploitation of women.

A controversial restaurant chain that features chicken wings and scantily clad waitresses is set to open its first Orange County location on the Newport Beach 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 Os in the restaurant’s name--the company readily acknowledges the double-entendre that many women consider offensive.

The “Hooter girls,” as food servers are called, are the principal attraction at the eateries. They serve up beer and baskets of buffalo chicken wings while wearing ultra-brief shorts and tied-up T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as “More than a mouthful.” There are no “Hooter boys”--men are explicitly not hired as food servers, but many do work as managers and in food preparation.

In most states where it operates, Hooters has rekindled the debate over the exploitation of women.

Hooters is aware that it has an image problem. But spokesman Mike McNeil said company officials don’t mind all the criticism of the restaurants, because the publicity has only served to bring in more business.

“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 those unfamiliar with the restaurants to pay a visit. “Once they go to Hooters, they will see that women go there (too), and sometimes even families . . . .”

But in Westwood, neighborhood groups battled to keep Hooters from opening a restaurant there. And though the company says it decided against opening there because of financing difficulties, the group Friends of Westwood takes the credit.

“We protested like crazy,” said Laura Lake, president of the organization. She said the group had contacted lawyers to question the restaurant’s hiring policies and had organized a band of elderly and handicapped people to apply for jobs if it ever came to that.

“We planned on taking this to the courts,” Lake said.

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 the 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 women’s groups say it doesn’t stop there. But there are the popular Hooters girls calendars sold in the restaurants. Even more offensive, some say, is that all Hooters restaurants have children’s menus and many are located 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 about the Newport Beach Hooters has been muted is that no public hearing was required by the city because the owners are moving into a spot that had already been occupied by a restaurant.

Even without a public meeting, the Friends of Westwood, which keeps constant watch over proposed new developments in that community, targeted the restaurant chain contending that its retail district’s image would be sullied if Hooters moved in.

“Westwood has a major university (UCLA) 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 at UCLA. The school newspaper, the Daily Bruin, became a forum for debate on the Hooters issue and, although many students supported it, feminist groups on campus 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 will tailor their behavior depending upon their environment.

“There is no question that when you allow people to be objectified, they are treated less like individuals and more like objects,” she said. “And when they are no longer people, you can do whatever you want to them.”

Nine lawsuits have been filed against the Hooters chain by former employees who allege that the atmosphere of the restaurant encouraged men, both 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 terms of the settlements from discussing their outcome. One lawsuit, filed in Florida, was dismissed and two are pending in Texas.

Newport Beach Mayor John Hedges said he has heard from some citizens who voiced surprise that Hooters was coming to the upscale beachside community.

“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.”

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Times staff writer Chris Kraul in San Diego contributed to this report.