"We took a picket fence out in front and put out tombstones with the names of all the other businesses that failed."
At the world’s first breastaurant last Saturday, kids played with Hooters Frisbees next to frat bros arguing about college football. One patron shuffled to the bathroom wearing a “Hooters Dubai” T-shirt. Others browsed merchandise, from hot sauce to Hooters bibs.
If you peel your eyes from two dozen flat-screens or the waitresses in tangerine hot pants, you can’t miss the memorabilia lining the walls. Framed pictures of Hooters Girls stretch over to the museum by the front door. Love it or hate it, this restaurant at 2800 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. is where it all began.
Now Hooters is synonymous with hot wings, beer and the babes who serve both. But four decades ago, the six men behind the restaurant didn’t expect the concept to last. They incorporated on April 1, 1983, knowing they might be pulling an April Fools’ Day joke on themselves.
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