Japanese Hooters

“When Tokyo Hooters finally launched at the end of October, an entirely male line of customers waited outside for hours before the 5 p.m. opening. As they filed inside one by one (after a ribbon cutting presided over by Miss Hooters International, LeAngela Davis), we lined up and cheered them to their tables. The inaugural customers weren’t backslapping, beer-guzzling foreigners, or even raucous office workers out for a laugh. They were exceedingly polite young men, some of whom blushed at the big welcome. Many had an endearingly nerdy familiarity with the restaurant. ‘We’ve been waiting,’ a spectacled Japanese man told me in English, then unrolled a signed Hooters T-shirt he’d taken around the world and asked if I’d add my autograph.”
 — Awl pal Paige Ferrari goes all George Plimpton to report on the opening of Tokyo’s first Hooters restaurant.