When the unique founders of Hooters took again management of the long-lasting restaurant chain final yr after its company chapter, they promised to return it to its roots.
That meant dialing again what founding member and Hooters Inc. CEO Neil Kiefer described as an oversexualized picture, reemphasizing the meals and hospitality, and broadening the model’s attraction to households and youthful prospects after years wherein some company areas had change into, in his phrases, “little boys’ membership shops.”
However on the South Florida Hooters areas, which have at all times been operated by the unique possession group, the servers who greet prospects on daily basis say they’ve been interesting to households and kids all alongside.
“Right here in South Florida, nothing is altering for us,” Gracie Williams, who has labored for Hooters for almost six years, instructed Fox Information Digital.
“We’re the identical Hooters ladies that now we have been from the beginning,” mentioned the 24-year-old waitress and bartender who additionally occurs to grace the July cowl of this yr’s Hooters calendar.
Micayla Williams, 21, who has labored for Hooters for about two years, echoed that sentiment.
“Nothing’s actually modified for our areas,” she mentioned. “We get households. We get aged folks. We get youngsters, even youngsters.”
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Their perspective affords a regional counterpoint to the nationwide dialog surrounding Hooters. As Hooters works to reshape public notion, staff at its two Fort Lauderdale areas say they’ve lengthy served a broader buyer base than the model’s popularity would possibly recommend.
Kiefer mentioned restoring that broader attraction constantly all through all remaining eating places is central to the corporate’s technique.
“We’re beginning to construct that broad base of shopper attraction once more, like now we have within the authentic Hooters,” Kiefer instructed Fox Information Digital final yr.
The emphasis is on hospitality, meals and neighborhood involvement, Kiefer mentioned, whereas transferring away from what he described as “renegade shops” that had change into “oversexualized.”
In South Florida, neighborhood involvement has at all times been the system, the Hooters ladies instructed Fox Information Digital.
However Gracie Williams doesn’t ignore the factor that has outlined the model for many years.
“We’re at all times constructing an oasis for others to return,” she mentioned. “Good meals, sizzling wings, chilly beer and, after all, fairly ladies.”
Each ladies pointed to the restaurant’s buyer combine as proof that the notion of Hooters usually differs from actuality.
Through the day, Micayla Williams mentioned, households make up a good portion of the group, significantly at seaside areas.
“Clearly, we get extra households through the day,” however there are additionally loads of date nights at her location, she mentioned, “which is fairly neat to see.”
Gracie Williams mentioned the oceanfront location attracts dad and mom and kids spending the day on the seaside.
“The dad and mom come and cling, and the children are out on the seaside,” she mentioned. “After which when the children come up, there’s a bunch of meals for all the children.”
Gracie Williams additionally pointed to the firm’s fundraising occasions, which donate a portion of gross sales to native charities and youth sports activities organizations.
She recalled internet hosting dozens of rugby gamers and a number of groups at one latest fundraiser, saying these occasions reinforce the restaurant’s function in the neighborhood.
“Lots of people suppose, ‘Oh, regulars are a person or somebody that simply provides you some huge cash,’” she mentioned. “However right here at Hooters, regulars aren’t essentially that. Regulars are our household.”
As Hooters works to persuade a brand new technology of shoppers that it’s greater than its decades-old stereotype, the ladies working at its South Florida eating places insist it’s simply enterprise as common.
