“Breastaurant” is the neologism coined to describe the booming sector of restaurants that expand on the value proposition offered by Hooters — large-breasted waitresses in short-shorts and skimpy tops — by adding 60″ plasma screens, top-shelf whiskey selections, frosty beer mugs, enormous beer-bongs, an emphasis on flirty interactions with servers, fresh food, and specialized, pre-scripted banter like “would you like your beer in a girl-sized mug or a man-sized mug.” Several breastaurant chains are thriving now, including “Tilted Kilt” (described as “Hooters goes to Scotland”) and Twin Peaks (servers in skimpy outfits and hiking boots). They ascribe their customer loyalty to “sports-viewing excellence” and “touchology” (frequent touching of the table by servers), along with a mandate for servers to be warm and outgoing: “Sometimes waitresses are providing the best part of a guest’s day.”
The following is a quotation from entrepreneur.com:
Tristano confirms that the servers drive the concepts. “The increased service is absolutely the core, not the food,” he says. “I suspect a lot of this segment’s success has to do with server training and hiring the right people.”
Though this segment of the market is definitely heating up, none of the concepts thinks they are in danger of saturation, especially since their numbers are fairly small and they’re not targeting the same geographical areas. Instead, they worry about competition from sports-oriented concepts like Buffalo Wild Wings. In fact, DeWitt says today’s market is similar to the one from which Hooters emerged in 1983.
“It seems like Hooters had the whole segment to itself back then, but if you do the research, they had a raft of competitors that popped up–often with really crass names like Mugs ‘N Jugs–before Hooters emerged as a clear national leader,” he says.
