Hooters

Yes, I know this has nothing to do with sound, music or theatre.  But it sucks and I have to vent somewhere.

They closed my favourite restaurant last week.  The Whitby Hooters, just down the street from my house.  Heck, I could walk there if I wasn't so lazy.  But now it's gone.

I ate there last Tuesday.  Lunch, about noon with Samantha, my favourite waitress serving me.  I sat there for about ninety minutes, read the paper, played some Angry Birds on my Playbook, chatted with Samantha and Courtney, and just watched the people come and go.  I left about 1:30.  Less than three hours later, so I've been told, the owner came in and told everyone to finish their beers and leave.

I know Hooters is famous for the pretty girls in the skimpy outfits.  And sure, that was one of the attractions. But it was more than that--I don't drink alcohol but I loved the bar atmosphere at Hooters, almost like the TV series Cheers.  You could just walk in and sit wherever you wanted.  The girls didn't try to seat you unless you stood there looking lost.  Loud music, lots of TVs, and lunch.

And I thought the food was great.  I ate lunch there usually once a week.  They had great lunch specials, $6.99 for boneless wings (really breast meat cut in the approximate shape of wings), a burger or a chicken wrap, with fries or soup, Monday to Friday.  $11.28 with a bottomless cup of Diet Pepsi, and tax.  Leave four or five bucks tip for the waitress and I had a nice break once a week for fifteen dollars.

The Hooter girls became my friends over the years.  My daughter joked that they were just being friendly for a bigger tip, but that wasn't it.  I was nice and respectful to them, I knew most of their names without looking at the name tag and they were good to me in return.  Practically every girl working there started pouring a Diet Pepsi when they saw me.

I think it really sucked the way the owner closed the place too.  It would be one thing to let the place close, as usual, and just not open in the morning.  But he went in at 4:00 and started removing things and clearing out the fridges and stuff.  And this was the first any of the staff, including the manager on duty, heard about it.  Girls on duty, girls coming in for their shift at 5:00 being told to go home, the place is closed.

Okay, it wasn't always busy.  What restaurant is?  But I really only went at lunch time, and it was steady enough, I think.  And if you went for dinner it was hopping.  Especially on all-you-can-eat wing day, and whenever there was a major sporting event on the TVs.

I guess it's expensive to run a restaurant.  And I suppose you need to make a profit--it's not enough to break even for all the trouble it is.  And it must cost a lot of money for all the staff, the cable and the TVs everywhere you look, and the wireless Internet, and gas and electricity, etc.  So I guess that's business.

But it still sucks.  There's no other restaurant within a two minute drive where I would have the same experience.  Even a twenty minute drive.  I guess not until I get to the next, nearest Hooters, in Downtown Toronto.  But they'll never get to know me there the way everyone knew me in Whitby.  And it's a forty minute drive there, and forty minutes home again.  Not to mention the gas.  I don't think I'll be going there too often.

Oh well, nothing lasts forever.  I had six years there, and now it's gone.  Maybe I'll lose a little weight?  But I've lost a happy place.

Michael :(