A long, long time ago, when I was active on the World-Wide Web site Chicago Gas Prices, we actually had our first-ever assemblage at the O'Hare Hooters (on a Sunday at 12:01 pm).
The food is, ehhh..., but it was OK. It was more illuminating to see the faces of the other people posting gas prices. I still have the photographs I took of this, but it was with a different camera, and I think the photos are saved on a CD-R.

The Rise and Fall of the American Breastaurant

I was a Hooters Girl in Santa Monica, California, for the better part of 2005, while I attended college. The hourly rate was about one dollar above the state’s minimum wage, but the tips covered enough of my expenses that I could work just three shifts per week, and spend the rest of my time studying. The job offered me a chance to monetize my youth and beauty—the sole marketable assets I possessed before obtaining a degree or meaningful work experience—in a way that was legal and safer than many parts of the actual sex industry.

=R=

I worked near the Near North Hooters for a while about 25 years ago and would pass it daily on my quest for lunch (even then it was a sub-par option). I would frequently see small groups of women eating there on a break for shopping, which always surprised me. I just assumed they were from the 'burbs and didn't know better.

Just as Gloria Steinem’s takeaway from her stint as a Bunny at the Playboy Club was that “all women are bunnies,” the truth is that most working millennial women, whether or not our jobs involve skimpy uniforms, represent members of an exploited, disposable underclass.

The solution to such exploitation is two-pronged. First, the long-overdue unionization of food service jobs, with the goal of demanding higher base wages and benefits. Second, the total decoupling of emotional labor from the service sector. From baristas to rideshare drivers to retail clerks, low-wage women workers shouldn’t be responsible for managing the unpredictable moods of strangers all day long, for flattering and mothering and psychoanalyzing customers—while smiling the whole time—in addition to our other myriad job duties.

I agree with the statement of the problem, and I have no opinion on the proposed first part of the solution (unionizing). The proposed second part of the solution I find laughable.

The problem is not that women are expected to be more caring than men. Put a bunch of 70+-yr-old grandmothers in place dressed like they're headed to church after their shift and saying things like, you poor boy, you must be stressed, have some chicken soup --- and you do not have a viable restaurant business model.

The problem is that women are expected to dress and flirt and let themselves be ogled (and in other job settings, not saying Hooters, let themselves be groped and fondled) and behave in ways men never would and use their bodies to appeal to men's sexual desires just to get a paycheck. We should stop treating teenage and adult women as sex objects and we should stop raising our daughters to think it is expected or even okay that behaving as sex objects is the way to get through life. And we should stop acting and talking as if we aren't all aware that's exactly what's going on.

Katie wrote:Put a bunch of 70+-yr-old grandmothers in place dressed like they're headed to church after their shift and saying things like, you poor boy, you must be stressed, have some chicken soup --- and you do not have a viable restaurant business model.

I completely disagree with this. You've been around LTH Forum long enough to know that it's all about the food. If a place such as you describe existed, I, for one, would be a regular.

Katie wrote:

The solution to such exploitation is two-pronged. First, the long-overdue unionization of food service jobs, with the goal of demanding higher base wages and benefits.

From the same source as Ronnie's article, just a day later.
McDonald’s Workers in 10 Cities Strike Over Sexual Harassment by Bosses
http://www.thedailybeast.com/mcdonalds-workers-in-10-cities-strike-over-sexual-harassment-by-bosses
I know there was picketing outside the West Loop HQ. As society evolves I look forward to the eradication of fast food like McDonald's and Burger King (many others). While some may say that they fill a critical need for people of limited means, the food is so unhealthy it ends up costing more than the original price through health problems down the road. Most of the jobs are extremely low paying (not to mention how the vulnerability leads to abuse such as that at the center of the strikes) and they don't expose workers to a diverse set of skills, instead it's the opposite as they want a tunnel vision assembly line workplace.

McDonald's food might be really cheap, but the crap that goes into it is even cheaper and I don't see how having people buy it does anyone (aside from a small number of major shareholders) much good in the long-term. I'm just waiting for consumer habits to get with the times.

To be clear, I did not write that bit about unionization; the article Ronnie and I both quoted wrote that. I only quoted it to maintain the context of the full quotation.

The subject of this thread is Hooters and, by extension with the link to article Ronnie posted, other so-called "breastaraunts."

Don't know about Hooters, but the not-Hooters at Touhy and Elmhurst road could have been worth it a few years ago when I went. Don't recall, probably $15 cover fee, but once inside, the food was free, so a couple of the large burgers, an order of chicken and a salad and you got your money's worth.