The New Republic writes this week about how North Texas-based Twin Peaks breastaurants have “out-hootered Hooters” by, under the direction of founder and CEO Randy DeWitt, focusing on the food as much as the “scenic views”:
Nobody at Hooters had figured out that the brand was broken, so he would fix it before they did. He started with the beer. “Cold beer is like catnip. Those working guys like their beer really cold,” DeWitt says. “Hooters’ slogan at the time was ‘coldest beer in town.’ I thought ‘big deal.’ It’s just a sign, just an empty claim. So we worked with a manufacturer to serve beer below freezing. It comes out at 29 degrees! And we put a digital temperature display so we don’t ever say ‘coldest beer in town,’ we say ‘look at the thermometer, you decide.’” Then he took on the menu: Everything down to the ice cream was to be made fresh in each franchise; nothing was to be frozen or carted in ready-made. (Order the shrimp cocktail at Hooters to see why that’s a good idea.) And focus on comfort food, not bar food: Hooters serves only burgers and sandwiches; Twin Peaks has pot roast with green beans and mashed potatoes and green chile meatloaf.
Sounds fancier, surely. But is the fare really any better? Guess it’d be hard to do worse than Hooters.
