The Application

I can't pinpoint exactly what made me think, "Oh Hooters! That's where I'll work." It was a lot of little things. I visited my local Hooters with my friend Bradley (all names in this blog are totally bogus), and we were amazed by several things. The fried pickles were delicious, the adorable way our waitress signed her name onto a cocktail napkin and flipped her hair at the same time, the ORANGE of everything, and the shocking tameness of the whole place had us under some sort of spell. We immediately decided that we should write a musical about working at Hooters, and Bradley joked that I should get a job there to provide us with foder.

I can't remember if this was before or after I did some online research and stumbled upon The Hooters Girl Blog. HK, of The Hooters Girl has maintained a hilarious and well-written account of her experiences from dropping off her application through the present. She's been working there for quite a while now and has even made her way up the ladder to a bartender position now. Her comparisons of life at a mom and pop restaurant to life at Hooters and her assessing the pros and cons of wearing the orange shorts have been big inspirations to me, and are part of why I am hoping to be squeezing my backside into them soon.

I also stumbled upon the career section of the Hooters official website, which make the benefits sound more appetizing than their nearly world famous wings. Reading these made me rack (pun intended) my brain to see if I actually knew any Hooters Girls. And I remembered Sandy. Sandy had been a camp counselor with me one summer, and I remember her always talking about keeping chapstick in the strap of her white lyrca tank top at Hooters, the best restaurant she'd ever worked for. Sandy had loved the jolly spirit of the place, the lack of sidework, the food, and mostly the amazing tips.

When Bradley and I left that night, I asked the girl at the hostess stand for an application. She looked at my messy hair and my lack of makeup and smiled, probably thinking I'd never be back. The next day I filled out the application the first moment I could find the free time. I was giddy with excitement. Hooters! The nearly world famous Hooters! The delightfully tacky, yet unrefined Hooters!! I could think of nowhere else I would rather work while finishing up my master's degree. Is it cliche? Hell yes it is!

I dropped off my application during the slow post-lunch, pre-dinner hours on a Monday, and since I had the good sense to go at a mellow time, I got to speak with a manager right away. Trisha was very put-together and friendly. We shook hands and she informed me that it didn't matter in the slightest that I'd only worked as a hostess before. She told me she had worked for Hooters for 5 years, first as a Hooters Girl on the floor and then as a manager, and that she loved it. I name dropped the other restaurants I'd worked at, and things went well. We shook hands again (have to admit, her grip was a little scary), and she said to come back on a week from Wednesday to meet with the GM Carl.