Third Hooters to open in UK – but locals say ‘it has no place in 2025’

Hooters are few and far between in the UK (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

Hooters, known for spicy chicken wings and orange-clad waitresses, is coming to Newcastle in only a few weeks.

But not everyone is best pleased about it.

The American ‘breastaurant’ chain, whose waitresses are called ‘Hooters Girls’, has branches in Liverpool and Nottingham.

Locals, women’s safety groups and animal welfare activists, however, have criticised plans to open the sports bar in Bigg Market.

A launch date for the franchise, on the ground floor of the former TJ Hughes building, has not been given.

Some hope the store won’t open anytime soon, however. ‘I understand the appeal but I am personally not a fan,’ said James Owen, a 20-year-old waiter.

‘I hope people who come here will be sensible and know Newcastle won’t just be about Hooters. What people wear or don’t wear shouldn’t encourage any harassment.’

Plans to open a branch in Newcastle were shot down a decade ago (Picture: North News & Pictures Ltd nort)

Wait staff are known as ‘Hooters Girls’ (Picture: Isifa/Shutterstock)

50 job ads for uniformed Hooters Girls have been listed for the new Hooters, which will have a capacity of 200.

A woman who did not wish to be named said: ‘I would not want my daughter working there and I certainly wouldn’t want my sons to go.’

Melissa, 20, added: ‘I’m not a fan. People can do what they want to do but it doesn’t feel very liberating.

‘It feels so American. It’s funny seeing an American thing on one side of the street and Greggs on the other.’

Rowan said: ‘I think people will go once for a laugh then stop but I wouldn’t want to work there.

‘Newcastle already has a reputation for attracting the wrong crowds so maybe that’s why they’re opening it here.’

Hooters was created on April Fool’s Day in 1983 by six men in Florida.

Melissa, 20, and Rowan, 18, aren’t too keen on Hooters (Picture: North News & Pictures Ltdnort)

It quickly became well-known – and infamous – for its plates of cheesy chips, mozzarella sticks and wings served by waitresses in the company’s trademark orange shorts as sports are shown on TVs behind them.

Hooters has more than 430 branches across 29 countries.

Attempts to bring the fast-food chain across the pond have had limited success. The first British branch opened in Birmingham in 1998 only to close 18 months later.

After two short-lived stints in Bristol and Cardiff, a proposal to open a site in Newcastle was shot down by council and police officials in 2015 over fears stag and hen dos could cause a spike in crime.

At the time, the bar and restaurant said in its application its style of operation was ‘no different to that of many similar operators throughout the UK’ and that its waitresses ‘dress in a similar fashion to waitresses at other units in the city centre’.

The chain has long been criticised for objectifying women. All serving staff are women and must wear the company uniform, tight low-cut white vests and tiny orange shorts.

The new Hooters will open this month (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)

A handbook given to staff in the early 2000s said: ‘The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and entertaining conversations are commonplace.’

Off-shore worker Alan Fenwick said ‘Does [Hooters] have a place in 2025? I’m not sure.

‘As a concept it is dated and as a society we should probably be over that sort of thing now.’

Hooters bosses have said the role of the Hooters Girl is about ’empowerment’ and helping them ‘advance in their careers’.

A spokesperson previously told ChronicleLive that the company donates to women’s causes such as breast cancer research.

They added: ‘Hooters has built a global brand, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, for more than 40 years.

James Owen, 20, and Caitlin Graham, 20, say they aren’t ‘fans’ of the American chain (Picture: North News & Pictures Ltd nort)

‘The same group responsible for our successful Nottingham restaurant, which has been in operation for 26 years, is opening the new location in Newcastle. Our customer base has always appreciated our commitment to giving back to community causes.’

Some Nottingham residents are more open to the idea of a Hooters on the high street.

‘It’s a fast-food restaurant where you can have a few drinks and have a laugh,’ said criminology student Hannah Devlin, 18, adding: ‘The girls don’t ask to be objectified by what they wear.

‘The issue is how men respond to it.’

Hannah’s friend on the same course, Jay Jay Ray, 19, added: ‘The people who have an issue with it won’t go.

‘If girls want to use it as an income and a job then that can be a good thing for them.’

Hooters has been approached for comment.

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