It's a Hoot

It’s a match made in heaven, or someplace like that. Hooters, the restaurant made world famous by well-endowed young women catering to the beer-swilling set, has opened a casino/hotel in Las Vegas, the city made famous by exposing women’s, well you know.

Hooters Casino Hotel opened Feb. 2 with countless big-breasted young women in small T-shirts serving the restaurant chain’s well-known chicken wings and lots of beer. Hooters Calendar Girls signed autographs, and at least three bands played in different venues. To say the place was rockin’ is an understatement.

The old San Remo, just east of the Las Vegas Strip on Tropicana Avenue, has been completely renovated in a “Hooters” motif with open industrial ceilings and cedar flooring. A casual beach theme is carried out, with palm trees painted on the sides of the old hotel tower. Even the 696 guest-rooms have received the Hooters treatment, with cedar headboards and armoires, and a high-top cocktail table and barstools instead of a dinette. The remodeling job has completely eliminated all evidence of the fading old San Remo on the inside. Clients who have been there often won’t recognize the place.

For a small hotel (by Las Vegas standards) Hooters is packed with dining and entertainment options. Of course, there is a Hooters Restaurant (the only one in the world with a full bar) but there is also The Dam Restaurant, named in honor of Hoover Dam and a sushi bar called The Bait Shoppe. Located next door but not attached to the casino is Dan Marino’s Fine Food and Spirits, an up-scale but casual steak and seafood restaurant.

There are several bars and lounges, including Porch Dogs, an indoor/outdoor venue out back by the pool with highly interactive dueling guitar and piano acts that often bring customers to the microphone to help lead the singing.

When warm weather comes, which should be any minute now in Las Vegas, a poolside bar will open featuring reggae music and Jimmy Buffett sing-alongs and, if you can imagine it, Hooters Girls in bikinis. Now that’s entertainment.

The casino is a complete one with all the games, including a race and sports book and a three-table poker room. Some of the 200 young women employed as Hooters Girls also serve as dealers. There’s even a “Hooters Calendar Girl Party Pit” in the casino and the calendar girl for each month is scheduled to make a personal appearance.

Clients might be surprised to find a health club and spa at Hooters but not so surprised to hear it’s called S.A.S.S. (Salon and Spa Services). S.A.S.S. offers facials, massages, manicures, pedicures and hair services. Hooters Health Club features state-of-the-art exercise equipment, many with individual flat-screen TVs.