The Near Perfect Sunday

My buddies and I limp our way out of the car across the parking lot and stumble our way through the doors. There are few things in this world that will cheer up a tired, beat up, and hung over football player on Sunday morning and, “WELCOME TO HOOTERS” is one of those things. A triple overtime loss on family weekend, in which each player lost an average of ten pounds, is not exactly my idea of a good start to a weekend, but going to hooters was my idea of a great ending to a weekend.

I come to Hooters in West Springfield for the same reasons as most 20-40 year old men, wings, football, beer, and last but not least beautiful women. This was not my first time in a hooters restaurant I have been to hooters in Boston, Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, and since coming to WSU last year I have been to the West Springfield location on three separate occasions. The first Hooters Opened its doors in 1983 in Clearwater Florida and has since expanded to over 455 locations in 44 states in the US, there are also locations across the world including some such as Korea, Switzerland, and Guatemala just to name a few. Clearly hooters is doing something right because very little has changed since the day the opened there doors such as their uniforms and there finger liking good menu.

The first thing on my mind is the game the Patriots vs. the Bills and of course every television in the restraint is tuned in. The next order of business is to find a place to sit with prime viewing capabilities and usually that narrows it down to a few places but in Hooters all angles are covered no matter where you sit you can see at least two or three screens. Jake spots a table with enough room to sit four football players comfortable so no one is rubbing elbows while tearing into wings. Our waitress Abby came over to us as soon as we opened the menus and asked if we would like anything to drink. “Would you guys like to try the rocket, it’s about 120 oz of any beer we have on tap”, Bud light please. It only takes a few seconds after she leaves for us to look at the menu and decide what to eat. As soon as we have decided she returns with the largest container of beer I have ever seen and four frozen glasses. We order 20 boneless wings for the table with mild sauce, while we are ordering Abby is making four perfect pours with no foam and not writing any of our orders down, to my surprise we don’t have to repeat our orders and she recites them all back to us.

Now that we are settled in it is time to enjoy the game unfortunately Tom Brady has just thrown his second interception and the bills are in scoring position. Normally I would be very upset by this but with a cold beer in my hand and a wing in the other I am surprisingly calm. Hooters provides that kind of comfort you feel relaxed as if you are watching the games at a friend’s house and are free to yell and cheer as much as you like without being looked at by the entire restaurant. Thought the game Abby keeps returning to refill out glasses and after 30 minutes brings four freshly chilled glasses that puts a school boy sized smile on all of our faces. As the game goes on the restaurant gets quieter as the pats continue to disappoint but the service never did as our plates were cleared promptly and our rocket of bud light replaced as soon as the last drop was in our glasses.

When I got up from my seat and limped my way to the bathroom I was hoping to get away from the replay of Tom Brady’s forth interception pass that went for a touchdown. I was unable to because the walk to the bathroom was full with televisions and I would have to close my eyes to miss it. At the conclusion of the game everyone in the bar was about ready to leave when the manager changed the station to NFL Red Zone. This channel may possible be the best thing to every happed to any bar, restaurant, or any place that football fans gather. This channel covers any big plays by the offence or defense and obviously any time a team nears the red zone. The original play was to leave after the Patriots game but that play was delayed by another hour and a half that lead to another round of drinks. When we finally left hooters four hours later our bellies were full and the loss of both of our teams was not weighing heavy on any of our winds and we were ready to start a new week. Any time I want to want to enjoy a football game a receive excellent cooking and services I will return to Hooters and maybe next time I can walk in without a limp after a win to watch the patriots do what they not able to do on this nearly perfect Sunday.