As a native Detroiter, I couldn’t help but find this little story amusing (sorry, it’s just the adolescent in me):
Hooters of America Inc. is moving ahead full throttle with a campaign to pressure the Troy City Council into granting a liquor license transfer for the chain’s new Troy location on Rochester Road near Big Beaver.
Officials with the company made the announcement at that location this afternoon, as Hooters girls — dressed in orange jumpsuits and orange scarfs — picketed outside, carrying signs with messages, such as “Don’t Endanger The Owl” and “City Council Buy U A Beer?”
The restaurant wants to move from its current location, at John R and Maple, to the former site of the Wagon Wheel Saloon, on Rochester Road. But in June, the council denied the liquor license transfer, with some council members stating that the restaurant does not project the image the city wants for its Big Beaver corridor.
Hooters filed a lawsuit in June with the Oakland County Circuit Court, trying to reverse the city’s decision. But a judge upheld the city’s decision and now the case is now pending before the Michigan Court of Appeals.
“It doesn’t matter what you say or how you say it: Hooters is Hooters,” said Troy City Council member Cristina Broomfield, who voted against transferring the license. “That is not something that we feel we want in the gateway of the City of Troy.”
I can’t help but wonder if the City of Troy would have cared so much if Big Beaver Road hadn’t been so close to new location of the Hooters, making the potential for adolescent jokes like the one I’m making now so high.