WingHouse Robbed Hooters

If I worked at Hooters in 1994 I would have been furious.

I would have been mad because some local guy by the name of Crawford Ker stole my entire concept.

Ker (the founder of the original WingHouse) is a local of the Tampa Bay area and after a short run in the NFL thought he would come back to Tampa and open a restaurant. His idea? Wings, full bar, hot women, and lots of TVs.....sounds like Hooters to me...

It's not like when McDonald's launches the "snack wrap" and then Burger King does the same thing. It's not the same as when Subway offers $5 subs and then a month later Quizno's does the exact same offer.

I'm not talking about a single menu item, idea or price point. I'm talking about stealing an entire restaurant concept - from top to bottom.

There are small differences between the two restaurants - both have an entire wood interior, simple streamlined menu, Christmas lights around the restaurant all finished off with old fashioned pictures from the "good ole days".

The only difference? Shorter shorts.

Well, that's not the only difference but it is the most notable one. If you walked in WingHouse, took all the menus off of the table and had a bunch of Hooters' girls serving instead of the WingHouse girls you probably would never even know the difference.

The plate ware is also very similar. We ordered our standard two most popular wing choices which came out on a fake wood plate. After we ordered our wings our server asked if we wanted any "celery, blue cheese or ranch" with that. Learning from my last wing scam experience I kindly asked our server if there was a "charge" for the side items. Much to my surprise.......there was. 99 cents for a side of dressing and another 99 cents for celery. I kindly declined this outrageous up sell.

How can they possibly be charging for Kraft Ranch dressing in a side plastic cup in the restaurant? It's wrong and sneaky. Normal dudes who go there would never imagine that they are charging for a side of dressing or celery.

The wings were good. We got mild and Dallas (BBQ), neither of which had a defining unique taste. The mild especially tasted very similar to Hooters and the BBQ also was close to Hooters. Unlike Hooters however they were completely tossed in the sauce. The Hooters wings weren't completely "tossed" in the sauce and the WingHouse wings were completely coated.

I suppose in reality the WingHouse concept is like Hooters 2.0 - same idea but slighted updated. The women are a little better looking and however, I think it's more perception than reality - loose the white scrunchy socks, make the shorts a little shorter, the shirts a little tighter and for some reason they appear to be "hotter".

How should you decide where to go get wings? It's hard. The prices are the same, food quality is the same, atmosphere is the same, service is the same.

My suggestion:

First decide which location is closest. Assuming they are both the same distance from where you are, ask yourself this question: Do I want to look at hot women or do I just want to go eat and not be distracted?

If your answer is - I want to go see hot women then your choice is clear: Go to WingHouse and check out the hooters.