man, i hate it when i go to fucking denny’s and my waitress won’t stop yelling at me about intersectionality pic.twitter.com/MIJfVsIb5V
— Alex Shephard (@alex_shephard) May 19, 2015
Only thing sadder than the “breastaurant” concept is the “breastaurant” target market, via ThinkProgress:
Popularly known as “breastaurants,” the franchises that cater to the male gaze by employing scantily clad waitresses are enjoying booming business even as the rest of the restaurant industry has been struggling. Case in point: Twin Peaks, a Texas-based chain that was founded in 2005 to provide an even racier alternative to the ubiquitous Hooters franchise, was the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the U.S. in 2013.
Twin Peaks attributes its success to a basic understanding of the sexes. “Men are simple creatures and so you don’t have to get too crazy to get them in the door,” Kristen Colby, the director of marketing for Twin Peaks franchise, told the Huffington Post earlier this year. She said that beer, sports, and beautiful women are all it takes.
An internal branding memo provided to ThinkProgress from a current employee at a Twin Peaks restaurant, who preferred to remain anonymous over fears about losing their job, backs up that claim. That employee said the memo was distributed to all the franchises nationwide, as well as handed out to waitresses.
According to the document, the restaurant wants to target guys “who love to have their ego stroked by beautiful girls,” and promises to provide an environment “that feeds their ego with the attention they crave.” They describe their typical customer as someone who likes “attention from beautiful girls and being recognized in front of the guys,” as well as someone who doesn’t want to be asked what he’s thinking…
***********
Apart from noting the roccocco flourishes of late-stage capitalism, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Mustang Bobby
Wow, that’s just sad.
the Conster
If this isn’t an argument that guns = dicks, don’t know what is.
aimai
“Doesn’t want to be asked what he is thinking?” How does this fit with the idea of a restaurant with more than one item on the menu? Are the women hired there big breasted telepaths? Inquiring minds want to know.
Jerzy Russian
I also want a waitress that understands grunts and can appreciate a good belch.
Schlemazel
Never heard of the chain before the shooting & was disappointed to learn that I guessed their business model right away.
We are in the grip of idiocracy and it shouldn’t be long before there is a “family-fun, casual dining establishment called “TITS!
MomSense
@aimai:
Didn’t you know these poor men are constantly asked by their nagging wives what they are thinking and on their night out they just want to stare at some big titties in peace and quiet.
Schlemazel
That is 1 more qualification than they require – guess which one is not necessary
srv
Water is wet. News at 11.
When are liberals going to march to ban Harleys?
SatanicPanic
Oh well, as long as it’s between consenting adults I can’t really get upset.
aimai
@MomSense: I still think they mean the customers need a picture menu so they can just point at what they want. Since apparently they are incapable of negotiating even their own social lives without purchasing time from a woman retail.
Valdivia
More depressing than the concept of breastaurant is seeing it spread all over the world.
I am having ‘violent movie night’ with my Dad. My mom is off to the theater so we spend evenings such as this watching any movies my mom wouldn’t be caught dead watching. I have lined up a French film that at least looks interesting.
Pogonip
This is the Playboy Club. Not a new concept.
Germy Shoemangler
Amy Schumer imagined a male-themed restaurant for women. “Nutters”
The guys wear outfits that show off their… uh… nuts.
Keith G
Al Swearingen is alive and well in 2015.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@aimai:
Genius! If I get this into production at Cinemax I’ll give you an executive producer credit.
John
@aimai: Well, yeah. Where else would they store all the extra brains necessary to read a man’s mind? Also, when a guy is staring straight at your extra brains, it’s easier to see through the windows to his soul…
Doug R
What a shock lowlife bikers would love it.
NotMax
Rococo.
With the capital R.
Although keeping the subject matter in mind, perhaps Rococko would be more snarkily suitable?
John
@srv: I’d march to ban you first.
Gindy51
Reminds me of the South Park parody, Raisins.
SatanicPanic
@Valdivia: In some ways, a corporate business with standards may be a step up for customers and the women working there. It’s not like we were the first humans on earth to think that dudes would like to look at scantily-clad women while eating.
Doug R
So this wasn’t the place with the damn fine coffee then.
Pogonip
@Germy Shoemangler: I don’t think it would make money. Similar things have been tried, e. g. Playgirl. Women weren’t interested. Gay men were but there are so many outlets for porn now that the Playgirl market is probably gone. I don’t think Playboy does all that well, either.
Elizabelle
Boobs, beers and bullets.
Brachiator
@the Conster:
Hooters and similar places have been around for years, without gun fights erupting.
@Germy Shoemangler:
Wasn’t that places like Chippendales?
The Schumer thing is very funny.
John
@NotMax: Rococo. Little known fact: it’s an abbreviation of Rock Out (with your) Cock Out. Fans used to scream it at Mozart.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Lenny Bruce on the same concept, over 50 years ago
Myiq2xu
BREAKING NEWS: Men Like Boobs!
Valdivia
@SatanicPanic:
Yeah though if it’s about standards for female workers I would prefer Starbucks or Olive Garden to Hooters.
There are plenty of places in Central America where men can ogle women while they eat without a place where part of its regulations say how short and tight the shirt has to be. Speaking of course as a woman who has never stepped into a Hooters and never will.
Germy Shoemangler
@Pogonip: My link was to an Amy Schumer comedy short. The women are portrayed as behaving the way men behave in Hooters, the way they stare at the guys’ nuts. The waiters, in the skimpy costumes, emotionally manipulate the women for bigger tips.
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
I think, though, that part of the appeal of this kind of place is that it’s just within the lines, so it’s still acceptable to bring women and children. So you can go out to dinner with your family and still get to ogle (clothed) breasts. If it didn’t have to be family [edit]
friendlytolerant, they could go considerably further. Here in Southern California, there’s a decent-sized business of sports bar/topless clubs.EriktheRed
@NotMax:
http://www.rockyrococo.com/
ruemara
@Schlemazel: Rubbin Bunz’ sster establishment?
SatanicPanic
@Valdivia: I’m just saying they’re probably better and safer places to work for than some local establishments, which are going to exist anyway
Brachiator
@Valdivia:
You’ve already seen “Mad Max: Fury Road?”
@Doug R:
Au contraire …
Hipster sleaze.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-18/why-biker-gangs-prefer-twin-peaks#r=read
Botsplainer
@Schlemazel:
Sadly, and speaking just for me, I’d probably go there.
MattF
And… the biker thing. How did that happen? The developers of this not-so-novel concept needed to go a little past Hooters in breaking the rules, I guess. I see a problem there.
Botsplainer
@MomSense:
Well, yeah.
There’s a problem with this?
MomSense
@aimai:
The description of the men from this memo is pathetic. I guess I took it as a jab at women who, according to many stand up comedians, are always wanting to talk about feelings and want their men to talk about their feelings.
Who knows. I think it’s safe to say that this is a place we would both avoid even before the gang war took place.
Valdivia
When I lived in Atlanta many moons ago, the office where I worked in downtown had a strip club accross the street. One of my bosses used to go there for lunch every day. I guess until then (and still now) it never occurred to me that men really enjoyed actually going to a strip club for the food. And yes, I know he probably went there during lunch maybe not for lunch.
Doug R
Some people just need a place where they can be rebellious in a rigidly conformist way.
Amir Khalid
I’m not familiar with these places. (I don’t expect to hear of a Hooters or a Twin Peaks opening in KL anytime soon, and if it did I doubt I’d ever set foot in it.) If I understand rightly, these places are the laddie magazines of the restaurant business, right?
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Rococo.
With the capital R.
As in Rocky Rococo?
the Conster
@Brachiator:
Most drinking establishments don’t allow guns. Mix drinking, male rivalry and toxic masculinity with guns, and they’ll be whipping them out like this all day every day.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Yes. They are just slightly above strip clubs.
SatanicPanic
@Botsplainer: Am I the only person who thought that Idiocracy was an optimistic tale of the impending death of bourgeois cultural norms?
gene108
I’ve had waitresses flirt, I assume in an attempt to get bigger tips, and I usually do not care. Maybe when I was younger, probably about the same age as the 20-something waitress, might’ve thought I had a chance and found it flattering.
But being middle-aged, with graying hair, and a gut I know there’s no real interest there.
I do not get why you would want an entire restaurant of flirting 20-something waitresses to try and extort more money from you, when you get the bill.
I just want my food, questions about the menu answered and a reasonable level of attention to the table, in case we might want more drinks, for example.
David Koch
Trending Worldwid:
Patriots cave on Deflategate.
They accept that they were caught cheating.
“The Patriots have been found to have cheated twice in eight seasons.” ~ Boston Globe
#Black Sox
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
I wonder if the Twin Peaks Restaurants carry this well-known German beer.
Sad_Dem
@Germy Shoemangler: Joke fodder: all the waiters are hunky, sensitive, and straight. They even listen!
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Topless Bars that admit kids? What, Mother’s Milk?
More seriously, there was an eatery in the South Bay where the waitresses served lingerie. Went there for lunch once with a mixed group of employees. At another table, we saw a couple of guys being served, One guy brought his son, maybe 9 or 10. The waitress that served them was friendly, efficient, just a damned good server. Nobody got rude or salacious. And the kid, who was also on his best behavior, clearly felt it a special treat to be served by someone who was very attractive. Still, there were some in my group who insisted that it was inappropriate to bring a kid to a place like this.
Heck, I think this place was better than some extremely snooty upscale places where the servers (male and female) are anorexic and surly and who act as though they are doing you a favor if they insult your dinner choices.
Gin & Tonic
Just to be clear, I was not referring to EriktheRed’s pizza place, but to an old Firesign Theater number.
CONGRATULATIONS!
It’s like ancient Rome, but I can’t force the waitress to act as a repository for my ejaculatory fluids.
YET.
Valdivia
@SatanicPanic: oh yeah, for sure. In Costa Rica, where sex tourism is a big big thing we have plenty of places but they specifically cater to that demographic, Hooters seems to me to be something a little different no? The appeal of transgression in a relatively non sleazy, safe environment. And I guess that is the niche these places fill and that these countries didn’t have before.
@Brachiator:
oh good idea. I don’t think he has. I might be able to get him to ignore his horror of Mel Gibson for it!
gene108
@Roger Moore:
I think zoning rules vary from place to place for topless wait staff and it is probably easier to get a permit to operate without being topless.
Sad_Dem
@Pogonip: Playboy magazine loses money–it’s kept in print as a legacy. I hear the foreign editions are still profitable.
Elizabelle
From the Bloomberg Businessweek article, Inside Twin Peaks, America’s Fastest Growing Restaurant Chain from September 2014:
Also:
Major Major Major Major
They’ve got things like that for both sexes in Japan. Strange, strange place.
scav
So we’ve finally established that this family-friendly dining establishment has, after some hard thought, decided gang-land gun battles might just be slightly over the edge, even in TX?
And nothing is more evidence of confident male superiority than going to a restaurant that explicitly caters to the baseline XY needs of flattery, tits and “decisions are hard non-conversation non-complication. Clearly designated evolutionary or God-Crafted Masters of the Universe that lot. Do they go to Burger King when they need to remind themselves of their traditional political prowess?
NotMax
Just now recalled that when was in the Scotland in the 1970s, Tennent’s lager cans had pictures of zaftig women on them
Botsplainer
@SatanicPanic:
Bourgeois cultural norms are more than a little problematic – they are sex negative, bring us lovely concepts like white male privilege, excessive deference to wealth and authority, excessive house size and lawns…
Elizabelle
I just don’t see us doing a Balloon Juice meetup in a Twin Peaks any time soon….
Patricia Kayden
@David Koch: Interesting. Sad for their supporters though.
SatanicPanic
@Botsplainer: I mean, I was being a little bit tongue-in-cheek with my comment, but a lot of the jokes in Idiocracy don’t really add up to us becoming stupider, just less concerned with traditional norms of behavior. I mean, Adult Starbucks? Sure, there are issues with such an establishment, maybe, but it’s not stupid, per se.
Valdivia
@Elizabelle:
yes please, let’s not have one there…
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
“I slammed on the brakes and stopped on a dime. Unfortunately, the dime was in Mr. Rococo’s pocket.”
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: Aside from the objectification of women, not a thing.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid: Named after an actual village in Austria. Who knew?
@the Conster:
There used to be a dive in Culver City very popular with bikers. They didn’t allow guns or knives, but no one checked too hard to make sure that no one was carrying anything.
Brachiator
@Valdivia:
Fortunately for everyone, Gibson is not in it. Tom Hardy plays Mad Max. Does a good job.
If you do see it, stay for the first part of the closing credits, just to check out the names of some of the characters and, especially Charlize Theron’s mother tribe.
Omnes Omnibus
A friend of mine from law school would occasionally want to have a “My Dinner with Andre” type meals and conversations. He always wanted to go to Hooters for them because of the incongruity.
Valdivia
@Brachiator:
oh you mean the new one, duh me.
My dad is mostly home bound at night because of a slew of medical issues so we are watching something on demand. But when it comes out on video we will watch it for sure :)
philpm
@Mustang Bobby: Even worse, the food isn’t good, and if the waitresses at the one in my city are anything to go by, they’re no better looking than what you would find at a Hooter’s, IOW, okay, but not anything I’d chase after for any reason.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
O ye of little faith …
Capri
@aimai: Heck, I’ve never been to a Twin Peaks and I know what the customers are thinking….
Brachiator
@Valdivia: OK. But even the “Road Warrior,” with Mel, is well worth watching.
Wishing your dad well…
By the by were you an admirer of “Wolf Hall?” I continue to believe that the final episode, and Anne on the scaffold, was incredibly well done. I think I missed one episode and fell asleep on another, not because it was boring, but because I was very tired.
But in watching this last episode again, I paid more attention to Jessica Raine as Lady Rochford, a very different character than the gentle nurse she plays on “Call the Midwife.” They way in which she helps send her own husband, Anne’s brother to his doom is just chilling.
Tenar Darell
@Elizabelle: Blech. The outfits and the inspections are ridiculous. Is there a single occupation that men do, besides Chippendale’s and modeling that requires this kind of minute inspection? I cannot think of any of the top of my head.
Double blech. This is a crime against the beer gods:
Beer should never have ice crystals in it, it obliterates the flavor. Seriously, even Bud Light or Coors Light will taste better if they’re not frozen.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
I did a little research (not exhaustive though, I am still working on it) and the only thing I found was this which is so not what I had in mind….Maybe the book we want to read doesn’t exist yet.
@Brachiator:
thanks, he is doing much much better and more stable, but he has so many issues and is now blind in one eye from the brain surgeries so walking at night is hard.
I loved Wolf Hall. I was also struck to see the Midwife actress be so utterly ruthless after her niceness in that show. More on this afterwards. Off with fingers crossed that the French movie is as good as it seemed from the trailer.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: Just desserts for Lady Rochford — she got her own severe haircut a few wives later.
She was implicated in helping Catherine Howard (#5, Henry’s teenaged and unfaithful queen) meet lovers for assignations, and had her own date with the sword immediately after watching Catherine’s beheading.
Not that Cromwell was around to see it, though. He fell in the aftermath of Henry’s displeasure with the Anne of Cleves arranged marriage (#4).
Brachiator
@Elizabelle: I guess some later historians have tried to rehabilitate Lady Rochford. But in this show, her malice was off the charts. And one account says that she went insane before finally meeting her own doom. Again, just a great performance by Raine, with her looking for her chance to make her strikes against Anne and her own husband fall as hard as possible.
PIGL
@aimai: “purchasing time from a woman retail”…..ouch.
Scotius
@Valdivia:
Speaking of violent French movies, if you and your dad haven’t seen “District B-13” I would highly recommend it. Social commentary, parkour and martial arts.
Roger Moore
@Valdivia:
Maybe not for the food, per se. Men can go to strip clubs just to look, so why not multi-task by eating and ogling at the same time?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Brachiator:
I read a recent biography that was fairly sympathetic to Lady Rochford, but it was pretty obvious even to a sympathetic biographer that she wanted to be rid of a husband she never liked, especially if it gained her advancement at court.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
gross. I’ve never eaten at such an establishment, and I never will.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Rochford fell into poverty. If she was looking for advancement, she spectacularly misread the situation.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: I suspect that a certain cold-eyed realism was a part of the picture. Henry and Cromwell were going to take Anne and her family down. Did she want to go down with George Boleyn or did she want a shot at surviving?
coin operated
@Brachiator:
Thank you for saying that before I got to the thread.
Linnaeus
This is, if you think about it, rather condescending. Moreso than most anything I hear from feminists.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): What was the biography? (Assuming it was of someone else, but Jane Rochford figured in it…)
@Omnes Omnibus: She survived to about 36, which was probably middle age then … She did come off as heinous, and without much explanation of why in Wolf Hall …
Elizabelle
I wonder how many of these boob-ogling breastaurant patrons relish the idea of their own daughters working there.
coin operated
For what it’s worth, I’ll be at a Twin Peaks restaurant in an hour or so to cheer on Anaheim in Game 2 of the Western Semis. Like all men who read Playboy for the articles…I’m going for the 2-for-1 beer (they have a decent draft selection) and about 16 large screen TVs that will be carrying the game.
As far as “stroking my ego with the attention I’m supposed to crave”, think of Steely Dan’s “Hey 19” for a moment….I’m not going there for intelligent conversation with the wait staff.
coin operated
@Elizabelle: If my daughter chose to work there, I’d be fine with it. She’s not a stupid girl…she’d be going for all the right reasons. Mainly, to flirt and suck money off the patrons stupid enough to fall for the schtick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: No, that book was not at all what we were discussing.
Zinsky
Chemical castration seems almost too kind a punishment for these “bikers”.
coin operated
@Zinsky: Chemical castration? Holy shit, you totally missed what happened in Texas, didn’t you? The fact that this happened at a Twin Peaks is irrelevant. The two remarkable shootouts that happened in Nevada in the early 2000s occurred in casinos…what…going to make them attend gamblers anonymous too?
Valdivia
@Scotius:
I put it on my watchlist for future violent movie nights
@Roger Moore:
the expedience of eating and ogling had occurred to me :)
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
it’s frustrating that there seems to be nothing along the lines of what we discussed, but also, kind of exciting thinking no one has actually done this (a feeling a little akin to realizing that still with all the sidetracking delays in my plans, what I want to write about is still out there untouched by political scientists)
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: I did a couple of searches on Google scholar and such relating to political violence in Renaissance Europe and found nothing but references to Machiavelli – who I would see as evidence not cause.
Bubblegum Tate
@Gindy51:
That episode was fucking amazing. They absolutely nailed it.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think specialization has made this kind of comparative studies very rare. I will keep looking to see if there is anything in European journals or by European publishing houses. There are a couple of high brow intellectual magazines Revista de Libros in Spain and Merkur in Germany that might have something like that in their archives.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: OTOH, if I win the lottery and go to do an ALM at Harvard, I could use some aspect of it for my thesis.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fingers crossed then that you win the lottery! I would want to read that of course.
If you went would your focus be European history?
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Most likely. Although, the international relations specialization appeals to my undergrad interests and international law interests. OTOH, why do a degree like that one without indulging one’s desires?
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
yes totally in agreement. If I was going to do a program like that I would pursue my desires (which turns out to be intellectual history Europe/Latin America). Philosophy is kind of a first love, or maybe in keeping with romantic metaphors, the one that got away.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Okay, so let’s keep this theme quiet for a bit. I’ll cite something you wrote in my thesis. Deal?
ETA:
History is mine. But after a C+ in my first history course and an A in my first government course, I made a decision.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
biggest grin. you got a deal, mum’s the word.
For me it was a bit of a misapprehension of how the discipline worked. By the time I studied politics in grad school it was much more science than politics and all the parts I assumed came together: philosophy, history, even law and international affairs, had all been rigidly segmented. Also: you teach what they need not necessarily what you want to teach so I get farther away from it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: I was lucky to get through a program that was based on the study of political philosophy. Being my age rather than yours has a few advantages.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sigh. That program would have been my dream. I have always thought I was born a little out of time (though we are working here with unconfirmed assumptions about that time dislocation).
Have you read Hella S. Haasse? Her In a Dark Wood Wondering might be something you would enjoy. I am a sucker for good historical novels as I am sure you gathered.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: As someone born in 1964, I have assumed form you comments that you are at least 10 years younger than me. And that book is now on my list. Thank you.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
A little less than that.
I will be very curious what you make of the book. I really enjoyed it and was grateful to the Scandinavian friend who recommended it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: I will find it and report back.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
I added something and it got eaten away.
Her best known work is also a historical novel called The Tea Lords about the Dutch Indies. It looks really interesting though the period is more modern. It is on my next-to-the-bed pile of books to read, waiting its turn.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Let me know if it is worth a read.
Valdivia
Will do. First I have to finish the summer syllabi. New classes are always a heavy lift but I confess it’s fun assembling the intellectual pieces together.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus: that above was meant for you. I think my brain is now telling me to give up. Buenas noches.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: So I will see your response November-ish? That’s cool.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
no no, once I am done with the syllabi this week I still have 2 whole weeks of utter intellectual freedom so you will hear from me about that book before june 8 :)
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Well, that is far before November-ish. Cool.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
well if the rain of spiders were to turn into armageddon then it might be novemberish ;)
but short of world’s end a couple of weeks. if not I will owe a glass of wine or a glass of whatever is your preference. deal?
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: ‘Kay.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Another Hooters, damn that is a creepy restaurant. All the women look the same and the food sucks. As far as grunting goes, what do you say to the waitress, beyond your order and be polite? She’s there to earn a paycheck.
boatboy_srq
@MomSense: WIN. Sad comment on society and on men, but still win.
boatboy_srq
@srv: Never going to happen: Harley Davidson is a major domestic industrial entity, and organ donation is an established and respected practice. Win/win. If the resulting donations are disproportionately Conservatist in origin, that’s just an interesting coincidence.
boatboy_srq
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: One big red flag I encountered at a former employer: the first departmental lunch out was at the local Wing House. Not a good sign when all the guys in the office pile out the door for wings, sliders and melons without so much as thinking twice, and even worse that the new guy is just assumed to be OK with this.
EthylEster
very nice. except for misspelling ‘rococo’…less commonly roccoco.