The Associated Press has a report about a restaurant concept that is part of a "booming niche" seeing double digit growth at a time when many restaurants are seeing small growth or stagnation. It is called the "breastaurant," and is defined as a sports bar with scantily clad waitresses. While the biggest of the breed, Hooters, has been struggling because of a perceived staleness in its concept, other chains and independents - bearing names such as the Tilted Kilt, Twin Peaks, and Mugs N Jugs - are seeing significant growth.
What's interesting about this is that it isn't just young men fueling that growth. Rather, there are a lot of families patronizing these restaurants because the food is seen as being a) tasty, b) plentiful, and c) a good value.
It helps, one supposes, that the waitresses at all these concepts say that they believe their primary job is to make customers "feel special."
What's interesting about this is that it isn't just young men fueling that growth. Rather, there are a lot of families patronizing these restaurants because the food is seen as being a) tasty, b) plentiful, and c) a good value.
It helps, one supposes, that the waitresses at all these concepts say that they believe their primary job is to make customers "feel special."
- KC's View:
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I think I've been to one Hooters in my life ; I was taken there by a supermarket executive (he knows who he is, and he reads MNB) who was appalled by the fact that I'd never been to one. It was great fun, but that had more to do with the company than the food or the experience.
Here's my main thought about such restaurants: I would not want my daughter to work at one.
I remember taking my son to Baltimore once to see an Orioles game at Camden Yards, and he desperately wanted me to take him to a nearby Hooters for a meal. (He couldn't have been more than 12.) I refused - I told him I didn't think it was appropriate, and besides, it would get me in huge trouble with his mom.
He swore that he wouldn't tell her, but I suggested that this promise would only be good until he got into trouble for something, at which point he'd look to change the subject by throwing me under the bus for taking him to Hooters. He grinned, and had to concede that I probably was right on that one. We ate someplace else.
