Tank tops, beer - and family fun?
An early taste of what's new on the restaurant scene
SAUGUS - The minute we pulled into the parking lot at Hooters on Route 1, we knew we weren't in for an ordinary night. Every spot was taken, and the first person we spotted was a teenage boy wearing an "I [heart] [heart] twins" T-shirt saying goodbye to a woman who appeared to be his mother. There was a line of people waiting to get in, and they weren't just men eager to ogle busty waitresses in skimpy orange shorts and tight tank tops. They were children, teenagers, grandparents . . . entire families milling about during the hour wait for a table.
We wouldn't believe it if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, but this shiny new Hooters, the 456th in the world and the only one in Massachusetts, feels like a neighborhood restaurant - if only you could ignore the waitresses wearing shiny nylons and tennis shoes and not much else. Which you can't.
"These are easily the hottest Hooters waitresses I've ever seen," announced the senior Hooters veteran in our party as a shapely blonde walked outside to announce an open table.
A woman standing near the door told us that her 6-year-old granddaughter made the decision to come here after a cheerleading competition. "She loves Hooters," she said, and apparently wants to be a Hooters girl when she grows up. Inside, a mom held her baby up in the air while she zerberted his stomach, and a newborn slept in a carseat. Three kids, ranging in age from about 4 to 18, stood on stools in the middle of the 278-seat restaurant while a crowd of scantily clad waitresses sang "Happy Birthday." What was this, T.G.I. Hooters?
Even the setting, with wood-paneled walls, bright lights, and balloons for the kids, seemed oddly wholesome. And the first-time Hooters-goer in our group was disappointed. "It's so tame," he kept saying. Hooters and its hotties are an institution, but when those hotties are singing birthday songs to kids, it's just plain strange.
Once our thoughts finally turned to food, wings were the first order of business - and we were glad. The wings had an addictive grease-to-crispiness ratio, and the spicy ones had a nice kick. The fried pickles had a pleasantly sour zing; the buffalo shrimp on the other hand, were more batter than shrimp - and what happened to the buffalo? Chicken plopped on a bed of iceberg lettuce and pale tomatoes looked like a sad excuse for a salad, but the chicken turned out to be more tender than sad. The burgers and onion rings were fine, as was the grilled turkey, bacon, and cheese sandwich on a buttered sub roll. Dr. Hootie, the health-conscious owl on the menu, recommended the raw oysters and steamed shrimp, but we recommend sticking with the fried stuff. Even the floor here is greasy, so why fight it?
Between the wait to get in and the wait to see if our waitress would ever return, we spent more than three hours at Hooters last Friday night. (In all fairness, the waitresses are juggling several jobs; one of them got a table of guys to buy T-shirts just by sitting down and talking to them for 10 minutes.) But it was a lively three hours. When the Red Sox game playing on all 25 TVs froze while the ball was in the air, then went blank, a chant went up immediately: "Free beer, free beer."
Still, it's not the most comfortable place to be if you're a woman. With a "Caution: Blondes Thinking" sign on the wall and owls with boob eyes staring at you, even a woman who chooses to come here with her children can start to seem a little like a piece of meat - albeit a battered and fried one.
Hooters, 1143 Broadway, Saugus. 339-600-7311. www.hooters.com .Wings $8.49 (10 piece)-$33.99 (50 piece). Sandwiches $5.99-$8.99. Beer by the glass $3.49-$4.49. 