Has your team eaten dinner at Hooters in Atlanta?

[Elgin Clock]

Just want to take a quick poll here.

Some uninformed people tend to think of Hooters restaurant as a "seedy" place unsuitable to take HSers.
I just want to see if your team has ever been there in Atlanta, or anywhere else for that matter.

I have been to Hooters a bunch of times with FIRSTers with my team, and as seperate smaller groups, and it's reputation as a bad place to take HSers or anyone for that matter is completely false in my opinion. :(

We were always treated with respect going there as a team, and respect was shown back to the people working there. I would expect nothing less out of FIRSTers. :)

Thanks for your input in this poll.

Also, some questions seperate from the poll, but I also want feedback on this:

Would it make a difference in your descision as a mentor or a team leader on a FIRST team or to go if it was:

A) An all male team

B) An all female team

C) A co-ed team

Thanks

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Um... I've never been to Hooters, but in 2004 we did go to The Varsity... I highly recommend it. Team 71 was there at the same time we were. It was very good food and awesome, entertaining service.

[CyberWolf_22]

We have eaten as Hooters in Atlanta. Not as a full team because it is more expensive then the CNN center food court but I don't see a problem with Hooters. I have been to Hooters on other school trips as well besides Robotics. Hooters is a family restaurant and I don't think the gender make up of the team makes a difference on weather it is appropriate to take your team .

[Elgin Clock]

Um... I've never been to Hooters, but in 2004 we did go to The Varsity... I highly recommend it. Team 71 was there at the same time we were. It was very good food and awesome, entertaining service.

Yep, I did hear that place was pretty cool at our last meeting. We may decide to hit that place up one night for dinner as well.
Looks pretty cool, and reasonably priced. :)

[robocritter250]

Our mentors won't let us go to Hooters either.

We eat a lot of breakfast at the CNN center, and when we stayed in the Westin a couple of years ago we went to The Hard Rock Cafe. That is a great place to go with your team if you dont mind waiting a long time for a table.

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Although I myself have never been to hooters, you are treated there like you are at any other family bar and grill. I met a few hooters girls myself outside of Hooters and find out surprisingly, the company markets itself as not just a sleazy place where "Animal House" stereotypes can go to get wings. I actually know a couple girls in my dorm who have worked at a Hooters but I specifically haven't mentioned about it. It's others who I had met...somehow somewhere.

But still, the meal service is better than let's say some of your typical college bars--where the food absolutely s*cks during the day and all that is a way to keep staying legally there until the late night.

I am not sure about their food though. As I've never been in a Hooters myself.

[Otaku]

Well, we've never been to Atlanta before, so no.

We're a co-ed team (although we only have 3 girls going with us to Atlanta), but I might bring it up with Meri (One of our mentors/parents, she organizes everything and also knows that Hooters isn't a bad place) and see what she thinks.

[Tytus Gerrish]

when we went in 2004 they charged us for every thing of blue cheese. it was like rediclous

[Pat McCarthy]

67 has gone to the ATL Hooters and the one close to our hotel at IRI.
It seemed to be a decent place for high schoolers to me. But if you have people on your team who might in some way be offended by the dress and very friendly behavior of the wait staff, you may want to split up your team and have a group go to another place.
That's what 67 has done in the past and it's worked out well.

[Brad Voracek]

This year we're going to Daddy D's and ... Something Chicken and Waffles. I forget the name. We've been to hooters before though, nothing wrong with the place.

[Lil' Lavery]

While 116 hasn't been to Hooters, I have been to the Hooters in the Atlanta Underground on a band trip.
I'd like to add another vote of confidence for Varsity as well. Great food, great prices, and (most importantly) quick. Absolutely great, I wish 116 was going this year.

[Mike]

Oh no! Breasts!


...and wings.

[Arefin Bari]

While I was in high school on team 108, we went to hooters every friday night. Elgin, that is as far you will get closed to seeing hot girls naked, we can understand why you want to go to hooter. =)

[technoL]

Last year we went to the Hooters in Atlanta for lunch on Wednesday and it was just like any other restaurant that we went to. They did start dancing at one point during the time we were there and a student went down to dance with them, but it was all good clean fun. Last year we also went to the Hooters near our hotel for dinner while in South Carolina for the Palmetto Regional.

If you're looking for controversy, the Hard Rock in Orlando is another story...

**Hey Tytus remember you were with us and the TechTigers when we went to Hooters in SC.

[Danny Diaz]

I'd like to add another vote of confidence for Varsity as well. Great food, great prices, and (most importantly) quick.

The Varsity is one of those places you have to go or else you truly haven't been to Atlanta. Make sure to brush up on the Varsity Lingo (http://thevarsity.com/history.php?action=lingo) to make your experience a lot of fun and make people turn their heads and look. :D

-Danny

[Elgin Clock]

Since this is straying from it's original purpose, but becoming a place to list some other alternate good places to eat which is cool with me, I have to mention Chick-Fil-A in the CNN center food court.

I bought a whole gallon of Iced Tea from them.. Like.. who has ever heard of such a thing from a fast food restaurant?? Being able to buy a whole gallon of a drink? Not me until 2004 that's for sure. lol

The only bad thing was that I took it back to my hotel room, and overnight it kind of umm.. fermented I guess.. lol
The sugar (because it was so sweet) reacted in a not so nice way with the tea and started to actually seperate.
It looked kind of disgusting, but was an interesting side effect and accidental experiment. :ahh:

At the time I didn't know if it was mold in there from sitting out all night long in our relatively warm room, or just a seperation of tea and sugar, so I just dumped it down the drain.

Oh wells.

[technoL]

I bought a whole gallon of Iced Tea from them.. Like.. who has ever heard of such a thing from a fast food restaurant?? Being able to buy a whole gallon of a drink? Not me until 2004 that's for sure. lol

Yup, that's the South. (not Florida though!)

[65_Xero_Huskie]

A couple people from my team went a few years ago, but the team as a whole didnt go. It isnt really a bad place (the one there) But i think its up to the make-up of your team. If there are people who are "suitable" to go then sure, why not. But if not, i would suggest not going.

[CurseofDragon33]

Yep every year since Nationals has been held in Atlanta. Unless they get a hotel that is too far away from it I think they will go this year as well. :D

[FunkyRatDemon]

A few members snuck off last year, lets just say...they weren't welcome back this year ;)

Our Mentor said "Them place is off limits, you ain'z going there", and well...they did anyways

(Lots of great pics though)

[mrmummert]

Hello..

When we went we did'nt go to Hooters...but we did go to the Varsity.
There are a lot of eating places at the CNN center. Also don't forget to
try to go to a Braves game. I recommend it. We had a great time there.

[KTorak]

Me and the group who came in early Wed went there last year and 50% of the team went out to eat there Thursday night. Side note, in ATL, our team hasn't ever really done stuff all together besides the nightly and morning team meetings because 99% of the students parents go so they wander off with them.

[BandChick]

Me & a couple of students & another college mentor walked there in 2004.
We had a blast, and hung out with some of the students from Team Resistance.
Our team tends to eat together, and Hooters is usually REALLY busy, which makes it hard to cram a team of 20 or so into their room on top of their already full-ness.

[JaneYoung]

There's some common sense that can be applied to making decisions about where and how teams want to represent themselves. If teams are wearing their team shirts, they are representing themselves and their school(s)/organizations. Do the schools/organizations have policies about these types of restaurants? I googled Hooters and I also googled Wikipedia's information. (We have Hooters here in Austin as well so I am familiar with the controversy.)

On a sidenote, during one of our robotics trips, the lead teacher and I were in front of the rest of the team, walking into a hamburger joint. It turned out to be a Hooters type restaurant. We turned around and asked the team to go back outside and make another choice in where we would eat that night.

[jill399]

i doubt our advisors/mentors would take us there. simply because of the reputation, although whether or not Hooters actually deserves it is a different matter. i guess it's more of the impression people would get if they heard we were there.


plus, our advisors are freakishly obsessed with Daddy D's. the only night we arent going to an event for dinner is going to be there. haha.

[David Brinza]

Two years ago, I took my son (Team 16) there on Friday night. While we were in there, an incredible thunderstorm passed through Atlanta. There were a lot of FIRST people who ducked in just to get out the rain. Some of them stuck around for some wings...

[CrosbyAR]

The college students did, then the high school students showed up.:confused:

So, yeah.

-Alex

[Daniel Brim]

The last two years I was on 294, we went to Hooters on Saturday night (we deemed the wrap party as too expensive). There's nothing really wrong with it per se, aside from its reputation. The service was pretty poor, though, as I remember it. On a side note, both times we weren't the only team there.

(Personally, I like the atmosphere of the Hard Rock better, but that's just me)

[Brandon Holley]

This is an argument no high schooler is going to win. While my high school allowed us to go when i was on my old team, my current team does not allow high schoolers to go. This is completely dependent on the school.

Honestly there is nothing worse your going to see there than what you'll see browsing through television. They have some pretty good food too. If you can go, enjoy yourself, if you can't, don't worry there are plenty of places to go

[bcieslak]

Go to Ted Turners resturant on the other side of Olympic park. Food is awesome (buffalo meatloaf mmmmm), prices are reasonable (9.95) and not too crowded...close by for lunch.

[Alpha 997]

997 did. Not as a whole team but a group of us.

[Kyle]

I have never been to Hooters with my team, but I have been to Hooters resonants before with other Fire Fighters and the only reason that we had a good time was because we were with friends, the food was bad, at each one that I have been to and you always over pay for everything, like giving a huge tip cause the girls are wearing next to nothing, not that they don't deserve a good tip or anything it just seems like much to order 10 wings for $8.00 and leave a $4.00 tip to me.

There are many other better places to get food and have a great time with your team.

[evanisthat!]

Tonight 108 ate at Hooters and although a lot of people think Hooters is unacceptable for a FIRST team (which in some cases it can be ....) we had a wonderful time! The manager and some waitresses made extra efforts to keep us entertained.
Here is a video from our experience:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AEqRwFh2-Mc
Near the end of the video it gets a bit involved, however, it may just be the level of maturity of our team that we were able to have this experience with an open and entertained mind.

[galewind]

yes, we did, last night. Yummy buffalo chicken sandwich.

Tonight its hard rock for us :)

[galewind]

oh, and as a side note, let me just tell you, theres a guy who stands outside of Newton field (by L41) who sells cobbler on one side and turkey sandwiches on the other.

Now, the sandwiches are 7.50 each, but they are amazing. Highly recommended. Oh, and the peach cobbler's pretty darn good, too.

[LindsayKnowlton]

I've never been to Hooters in general, but I've definitely heard about the controversy. In Troy, they opened a new Hooters recently to supposedly replace the old location, and there was a lot of hoopla about it (even made national news!). Despite the fights to get drive Hooters out of Troy, now the old and new locations are both currently in business. So instead of now having one Hooters, there's two. :P

I think Hooters's reputation is a bit exaggerated, and supposedly it is considered to be a "family" restraunt, despite the questionably appropriate dress of the waitresses. My guess is some Hooters are more conservative than others, but I could be wrong.

If people are still weary about going to Hooters while in Atlanta, have the adults of the team check the place out beforehand to see if they find it appropriate for the high schoolers. If the adults say ixnay to Hooters, there's always The Varsity. (Went there last year with my team, and it was really good. Much cheaper than any food I'd get in Troy. :P)

[Cody Carey]

I have read everything in this thread, and I feel compelled to post my opinion. It seems to me that a lot of Men and partial teams Have eaten at hooters and thought it was a wonderful, family oriented sort of place... When I go to their website, however, I am told a different story. Among the first things that I see are their catch phrases: "Delightfully Tacky, yet unrefined." and "Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity." Both of which are noticeably smaller than the pictures of women in skimpy clothing. The rest of the homepage consists of a number of swimsuit adds, more pictures of women in skimpy clothing, and a bunch of publicity projects. Based on that alone, If I were a school-board official, I would not allow my team to be represented in a Hooters restaurant if they submitted a formal request. I don't feel that any school board official would, and I don't know how many of our team parents would be happy; but my guess is not many. ( and that's not even mentioning significant others :D)

We have never eaten as a team at Hooters, and I would hope that the team wouldn't as it continues on down the road without me. That is not to say that it is a bad place for People to go in their spare time if that is the kind of thing that they like, but I just don't think it is a thing for a school related activity; especially one that can (and frequently does) have kids under the age of 12 participating.

Eh, Maybe I'm just crazy. :)