Hooters

This review is for pickup.  On the plus side, you can order take out online.  Makes it easy when you have multiple people trying to decide, you can order/modify the order/pay for the order etc.  The people were pretty nice when I came in (we do this somewhat frequently) as they were dead slow.  A couple of the waitresses said hi, a manager looking person said hi.  The bartender (you pick up at the bar) was pretty friendly, had a beer while I waited.  The food has continued to decline.  Pigeon Wings are on the menu apparently.  I paid nearly $40 for some wings and tots and these were the smallest wings that purportedly came from a chicken, I've EVER seen.  The boneless ones were even smaller.  Tasted okay per se sauce wise but there was nothing to these wings.  The tots are not cheap and came with 1 tablespoon of sour cream, bacon and chives, and 2/3 a small cup of cheese sauce.  Ditto the "chili" aka brown water, a small dressing cup of that.  For nearly $40, plus a tip/beer we will be going out for our wings or picking them up at a nearby Sports Bar/competitor.  Buffalo Wild Wings is building across the street and if you're not going here to ogle, I know you can do far better for food and value.

WORST HOOTERS EVER:  New Corp  CEO says no more previously frozen wings.  WRONG.  Wings were awful.  Black bones, tough, etc.  No one seemed to care.  I knew I would never return so I paid my bill  with a smile.  Waitress and Manager, seemed to not notice that I did not eat my wings.

I am so naive - and stupid.

After my last Sanford Hooters review on Yelp, I rec'd a nice unsolicited email from an important Hooters Marketing woman thanking me for my candid observations. This nice woman further promised to immediately address the service issues I delineated in my Yelp review. She promised massive changes for the better.

Nah.

Today was Gators baseball - Super Regionals - win and go to the World Series in Omaha. Call me naive; call me stupid; but I believe professional Corporate-type business-people when they say they're going to do something.

Walk in around 2 on a Sunday afternoon - good crowd - half full - families + NASCAR fans + Gator baseball fans(!) + muscle-car dudes from the classic-car orgy taking up all the convenient parking spaces outside. Sit down at a clean table in front of a tv - and wait - and wait - and wait - and wait ..... Sense a theme here?

During the next 8 minutes 9 (I timed it and I counted) separate waitpersons walked by me without acknowledging my presence. In my line of sight, I see 4-5 of the waitstaff constantly clustered around the front merchandise counter full of Hooters-branded 'stuff' - each one evidently hoping some fool would rush breathlessly up to them and spend copiously on can't-miss Hooters memorabilia. As I sit and ponder the next move - will I be waited on - each one of these knuckleheads needed a refill of their own drink.  One would walk up to me (am I going to finally be waited on? - nope) and then turn right or left at my table, which was evidently my bad for homesteading next to a main aisle/walkway while they hit the ice bin, and topped-off their own drink, before returning to their cluster of vacuous pinheads in their designated leaning/standing/hanging-out spot. I was clearly in their way - several had to turn slightly as they walked past me - a few brushed my shoulder because of the tight placement of tables around me.

At the 8-minute mark, after apparently watching this ballet of ignorance play out, a separate, very meek, young Hooters-clad waitperson dropped off a menu to me and said: "your waitperson will be with you in a few minutes.", and left.

Ok, now we're finally getting somewhere.

Another 7 minutes - nothing. Now I have been occupying space in Hooters right smack dab in the way of the employee free-refill soft drink machine for 15+ minutes; in plain sight of a multitude of under-educated waitstaff with monumentally-small IQ's; who are ostensibly wearing Hooters apparel because they were hired to actually be waitstaff; yet are evidently so self-absorbed that even these mental midgets cannot grasp how they are to make money: wait on customers - like me.

Nope. Not going to happen.  Time to go. Not one of the 5 young ladies clustered by the front door so much as acknowledged me as I walk right by them, make eye contact with each, smile, and exit the premises.  Amazing.

Memo to the nice Hooters Corporate Marketing woman who reads Yelp reviews: whatever you did in Sanford after your email last January ain't working.

Boy - I am so stupid - later, Hooters.