You've Got To Be Kidding

Hooters Not Too Bawdy For Brooklyn

I don’t mean to generalize, but there are an awful lot of trivial food-related controversies afoot. A few weeks ago, a group of parents in Park Slope complained that neighborhood ice cream vendors caused family problems, as their children would spot the treat purveyors and lament being unable to indulge in sugary bliss. But with the possibility of a Hooters coming to town, musical goody trucks are the least of Brooklynites’ problems. Many moms and dads in the borough shudder at the prospect of the less-than-conventional restaurant in their area, not just because it takes away from the culture of New York, but because it’s like, totes inapprops.

“It’s a disgusting national chain with bad beer and bad food,” Lee Skaife, a mother of two, told the New York Daily News in response to the news that Hooters reps are scouting Brooklyn for space to stick one of their venues. “It’s just not a family place.”

You want to know another “disgusting” chain? McDonalds, which is more prominent in NYC than in any other city in the country, so let’s stop kidding ourselves that we reside in the healthiest environment possible. Parents do not have to bring their younguns to Hooters, which quite frankly is not as raunchy as people like to think, so this gripe is all too reminiscent of the ice cream truck protests.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Hooters has been denied land plot in Brooklyn. Executive director of the North Flatbush Business Improvement District, Sharon Davidson said the business has attempted to set up shop in Brooklyn twice without any luck. The franchise would draw customers from Net fans in the new Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards, which opens in several months, but Hooters haters won’t have any of it. A group called Save Park Slope tweeted fightin’ words Monday: “We will fight Hooters on all fronts.” Now that just sounds dirty.

I dislike chain restaurants as much as the next mom-and-pop business lover, but the argument that Hooters is a step above a strip club makes me want to orchestrate an intervention with these bewildered Brooklynites. Move to the suburbs of New York State or anywhere else in the US, but don’t live in the biggest city in the country and whine that your little ones are going to be robbed of their innocence.

TAGS: Brooklyn | Hooters

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