Sad-ish news: Hooters, and its shorty-short-wearing waitresses, is leaving San Francisco, SFist reported yesterday. The national chain will be closing up its only location in the city -- at Jefferson and Leavenworth in the Fisherman's Wharf -- on December 21.
It's fair to mull over the reasons why Hooters might leave a high-traffic tourist spot in San Francisco. Do we have too many gays? (We do like to check out Hooters, but rarely become regulars.) Too much class? (Have you been to the Wharf recently?)
Maybe the girls are just retreating to comfort of the outer 'burbs, where Hooters has three other locations. There's only one Hooters in Manhattan, for instance -- the rest of the locations are out in New Jersey and Westchester. Central Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami all have a couple, ringed by many more branches in the periphery, and Bostonites, Philadelphians, and Seattleites all have to travel out of the city to order wings.
SFoodie suspects the reason Hooters has failed in San Francisco is that
people come here to eat something other than what they can get. Steamed
crab and clam chowder at Fisherman's Wharf, yes. Even In-n-Out Burger
constitutes a California destination meal. The same five-piece
flappertizer with Three-Mile Island sauce that you can get in King of
Prussia or Tacoma? Nah.
Then again, that doesn't explain the success of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
