Hooters plan for Dubai debut 'in doubt'

by ryan | June 27, 2007 at 11:40 am

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Hooters has always touted itself as a family restaurant. But the disproportionate number of googly-eyed men who say they go there for the chicken wings suggests otherwise. The restaurant chain is now poised to open a franchise in Dubai but has come up against good old fashioned Muslim values.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- US restaurant chain Hooters, known for dressing its waitresses in revealing clothes, may face opposition in its bid to expand into the booming city-state of Dubai, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Kuwaiti investor who owns the franchise rights for Hooters hoped to open a restaurant in the emirate this year, the English-language Gulf News said.

But Dubai's department of economic development said that Hooters had not been registered with the department and that it would not allow restaurants that are in violation of the Muslim emirate's "religion, tradition, and culture."

The restaurant's waitresses, dubbed "Hooters Girls," are known for wearing tight orange shorts and white tank tops or T-shirts.

The relatively liberal Gulf emirate of Dubai, one of seven that makes up the United Arab Emirates, is trying to position itself as a global business and tourism hub.