No, I don’t remember far enough back that “Hooters” was a new concept, though I do remember far enough back that “our area is finally getting a Hooters” might be news

“Delighfully tacky, yet unrefined” was kind of a major aesthetic of the 90s, of Big Johnson and Coed Naked shirts, of Rikki Lake and Jerry Springer, of Girls Gone Wild and Baywatch and “Bubba” Clinton

It’s worth noting Hooters was a solution to a real estate problem, of providing proven, turn-key restaurant concepts for new-build arterial road shopping centers in a period of exurban development. Olive Garden and Outback Steakhouse were also deliberately built up from 80s Florida concepts into national chains on this basis.

Which means its clearest successor might be… Buffalo Wild Wings? And the recasting there of the wings-munching average Joe from a manual laborer consuming Women to an office drone consuming Sports is kinda interesting.