UPDATE: GRAND OPENING THIS WEEK

courtesy of the Advertiser:

Common it's not. Controversial? Maybe. Regardless, one thing is certain -- Montgomery will get to experience a meal at a Hooters Restaurant this week.

There have been several attempts to bring the popular eatery with its All-American menu and Hooters Girls here since 2002, when a group of Georgia investors signed a lease to open a location at 2107 East Blvd.

That attempt, along with several others, failed. But Hooters district manager John Wilson says the wait is over. The restaurant will open to the public at 5 p.m. Wednesday, following a Tuesday VIP preview.

How long people have been waiting for the restaurant to open hasn't been lost on him or the restaurant staff.

Wilson said during employee training, about 25 cars an hour visited the new restaurant location in the Twin Oaks Shopping Center at the corner of East Boulevard and Vaughn Road to ask if they've opened yet.

He said he expects that enthusiasm to continue long after the restaurant serves its first basket of buffalo wings.

"We are the cure for the common restaurant," Wilson said. "We will put a smile on your face."

The casual beach-themed restaurants feature "oldies" music, sports and a menu that includes seafood, sandwiches, salads and spicy chicken wings. According to information on the company Web site, Hooters generates 72 percent of its sales from food, 5 percent from merchandise and 23 percent from beer and wine. Most Hooters locations do not serve liquor.

The Montgomery restaurant is in a building that has been home to several establishments over the past 20 years, but customers may not recognize the inside, which has undergone an extreme makeover.

The revamping, plus a new patio and deck, will allow seating of up to 300 people. The bar has been relocated to the center of the restaurant. The deck can seat about 50 people and the patio 25, Wilson said.

Inside, customers can be seated in dining rooms on either floor. A meeting room will be located upstairs, along with pool tables and games. The restaurant also will feature 22 televisions.
The staff will include 31 cooks and eight hostesses.

Still, Wilson knows that it won't be the menu or the revamped interior that will be the big draw, but the image for which the restaurant is best known -- Hooters Girls.

Wilson has been busy training the 64 girls who were chosen from about 350 applicants. He never refers to the Hooter Girls as waitresses, and there is a reason. He said their primary job is to interact with customers and be ready at all times to look like the All-American girl "in the mold of a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader."

In fact, 10 guys will be on staff to do most of the work waitresses would usually do. Hooter Girls will serve food and spend time singing, dancing or hula-hooping, Wilson said.

"We don't allow Hooters Girls to pick up trash cans and clean tables," Wilson said. "She's got to look like she's ready for a photo shoot at all times. I tell everyone this is a movie we are putting on and the stage is Hooters. We have assistants, but the stars are the Hooters Girls."

While Wilson admits the restaurant concept has been successful catering to males between the ages of 18 and 45, the company has generated increasing support from families with offers such as children eat free on Sundays.

Hooters of America Inc. is the Atlanta-based operator and franchiser of more than 435 Hooters locations in 46 states and more than a dozen countries. The privately held corporation owns 120 units.