GatewayRedbirds.com

This year they gave two coupons for every week of the NFL season to use (past seasons have been just one) plus they give us a private room with a projector and our own waitress. Since we work downtown, it is really convenient to gather up some people and go there for lunch during the week to use the coupons. A few weeks ago we ended up there on their anniversary without knowing it so not only did we get our free buffalo shrimp but then our table was randomly selected to pop a balloon for a prize which got us a free appetizer and they let us use it for an app we had already ordered. Then they gave out free cupcakes too.

Just got back from the downtown Hooters for lunch and I am ready for a nap. 8 guys took down 130 wings (40 were boneless though) and two orders of cheese fries plus everyone got a soda for $12 each including tip. And the best part is that I still have another coupon for 40 free boneless in my pocket to use by Monday and then another one in week 11.

The manager at the downtown location has routinely let us use multiple coupons on the same visit this year too. The first time we had to order the first 40 and then pay our tab to that point but then the girl just opened another tab for us and we got to use the second 40. Today they didn't even bother with that and just took both of them on the same tab.

Added rant... realizing two hours later that when you got into the passenger seat of a friend's car to go to lunch, that sound was actually your jeans ripping right down a cheek. And I realized this morning that I didn't have any clean drawers so I'm going commando. Thankfully my shirt is long enough to cover it up for the most part. Now I just can't leave my desk the rest of the day which is horrible because I really want to go outside and have a smoke. And of course I take the bus and train to and from work which means lots of potential witnesses. I was going to go straight to the bar after work but now it looks like I'm taking a cab home and then to the bar... unless I can find some duct tape around here. I thought about staples but that could go wrong in a hurry.

Plus, boobs.

Yes, that is another perk. Then again there are plenty of places you can go around town where the women are more scandalously dressed than Hooters. Johnny's in Soulard being one of them.

tlombard wrote:Yes, that is another perk. Then again there are plenty of places you can go around town where the women are more scandalously dressed than Hooters. Johnny's in Soulard being one of them.

True, but in general there is a career arc that is something like this:

Hooters waitress => stripper => Johnny's waitress => retirement after getting married => Johnny's bartender after being divorced => death

I like to think of Hooters being the AA of the big boobed service industry.

I have actually only been to Jonny's twice and the first time I was in there just long enough to do a shot and then left to go back to meet up with other friends so I don't have much experience there but you are probably right. I was a bit shocked to learn the second time I was there before a Cards game that one of the women working there has a son... who also works there bussing tables. I wouldn't have lasted a day there if my mom was running around in lingerie serving drunk guys. First one who I overheard make a comment would have been filing assault charges against me.

The one friend I had who got a part time job at Hooters took a slightly different path. She went from having a great job as a radiation therapist and driving a nice Mercedes to becoming an alcoholic who is now working at another bar full time because she ended up in jail for five days as a result of a warrant for an accident where she was drunk and not taking care of the warrant when they finally filed charges months later. She got pulled over for speeding in Springfield, IL and it took them five days to transfer her back to St. Louis so she could get released on bail and her job at the hospital was gone. By then she wasn't even working at Hooters anymore. She had moved on to another bar. Once she started working in bars she would go out after work with her co-workers and it just went downhill quickly from there. She was working at Bar 101 for awhile but is even banned from there now because from what one of the girls told me, they couldn't handle her drama anymore.

She needed a place to live at one point so she moved in with another friend of ours. She apparently owes him $1500 in rent that was never paid. Sheriffs stop by trying to serve her from time to time even though he kicked her out over a year ago. She owes another friend a bunch of money that she lived with before (we didn't know about that when she moved in with the second friend). Since she started working at Hooters, she has just made a mess out of her life. I probably haven't talked to her in a year at this point. I ran into her at a Blues game one night last year and that was the first time I had seen her in probably a year at that point.

Either way, Hooters is a gateway job to a disaster of a life for some. Then again, I'm sure that can be said about a lot of jobs. The only other person I knew before they started working at Hooters is a friend of the family who I used to babysit many years ago and she has turned out great, played soccer in college, got her degree and now has a good job and is into winning fitness contests.