Don’t look now. Or stare either. But a second Hooters restaurant has opened in San José.
The casual sports bar and diner famous for waitresses with big smiles rolled out its second establishment in the capital. It opened June 14 south of the Rotonda de la Bandera in the eastern San José suburb of San Pedro (across from the University of Costa Rica).
Reports say the restaurant required an investment of more than $2 million. The new Hooters is much larger than the original in Plaza Itskatzú in Escazú, west of the capital.
Ivannia Fernández, who manages the Hooters girls, said the restaurant employs 35 of the famous Hooters icons. Dressed in short orange shorts and white tank tops, the girls dish out wings and beer to patrons.
Signs on the walls have cheesy sayings like “Hooters girls are flattery operated” and “Warning: Blondes at Work.” Some of the waitresses wear hokey orange angel wings.
The new restaurant installed two dozen television screens in time for the World Cup, giving guests something else to gawk at while waiting for their meals.
“We open in the morning at 11 a.m. And at 12:30 (when two games are played), the restaurant is full,” Fernández said.
A revolving door takes guests into an expansive dining and bar area. The restaurant is two stories, and has a patio. Some, though, might prefer the view inside.
A wise man once said: “Nobody goes to Hooters for wings. But they must be going for something.” Already, business is booming.
“On the weekends, we had people waiting for an hour and a half outside,” Fernández said. “We’ve already had a bunch of people coming here.”
