Hooters’ Newest Location: Exit 69 (Big Beaver)

No, I’m not making this up. Exit 69 on I-75 North in Michigan is Big Beaver Road. The intersection of Big Beaver and Rochester Roads, as of today, is the location of the newest Hooters restaurant, known for its buffalo-style hot wings, and midriff-bearing, hotpants-wearing waitresses.

Except, unlike its counterparts throughout the country, this Hooters will not serve alcohol (yet?) The City of Troy, where an ageing Hooters already exists, denied a request to transfer the venue’s liquor license to the new establishment. Critics site the prominence of the Big Beaver exit as the “gateway” to Troy and the potential “image problem” that a Hooters might cause. By denying the transfer request, the City of Troy thought that they would prevent Hooters from opening the new, more visible location. But the sale had already ocurred. Although Hooters’ original plan was to close down the old restaurant, the irony is that because the license is not transferable, Troy is now home to two Hooters restaurants. To add insult to the central-planning injury: restaurants require visibility to remain profitable. The more profitable they are, the more people they can employ. The more people they employ, well, it ought to go without saying that this would be good for the economy. Denying (or attempting to deny) a company’s proposal to employ upwards of 100 people, when our unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation is simply asinine.

Additionally, Troy, MI, is not a small podunk ‘burb, where one establishment might mar the city’s identity. Quite the contrary: Troy is a bustling city, home to upscale shopping malls like the Somerset Collection, and loads of corporate headquarters like: Flagstar Bank, Quicken Loans (Rock Financial), Arvin Meritor, KMart, and Delphi Automotive. Nor is it a right-wing-theocrat’s aryan-christian wet dream. It’s about as diverse as a city can be, and it’s not gentrified, either. I’ve actually seen pickup basketball games at my gym, 5-on-5, where none of the participants on either team were black or white. There are probably hundreds of restaurants within the city, not to mention the existing Hooters, which is little more than a stone’s throw away from the new location. The heavily trafficked intersection renders the lot useless for pretty much anything but a restaurant or a gas station. But it appears that the central-planning board of Troy would rather let the building sit vacant, like the adjacent industrial lot, and the used-to-be-a-Big Boy, across the street - both of which locations are employing a sum-total of nobody and adding to the enjoyment of nobody. What Council would prefer is beyond me: the previous tenant, the Wagon Wheel Inn, was a casual dining restaurant and bar that had been at the Big Beaver location as far back as I can remember, and which ultimately failed the market-test.

There is no logic or reason in hamstringing the restaurant in such a manner - it’s like asking them to go to a gun-fight with a switchblade. Leave the decision-making to the consumers: it was the consumers (or lack thereof) which ultimately put the Wagon Wheel out of business, and if Hooters is to sink or swim, it should be the consumers who decide. If it succeeds, we can safely presume that it’s profitable. Which means that it’s employing people (which is a good thing) and that other people voluntarily go there because they enjoy the “delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” atmosphere.

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