If you've been to Hooters, you know what a "breastaurant" is. They're the places featuring scantily clad ladies serving wings (Hooters), barbecue (Bone Daddy's) or even burgers (Burger Girl, which we featured a few weeks ago).
Now, another "breastaurant" chain, Twin Peaks, wants to open a new location in Southlake -- but it seems like the residents of the city aren't ready to make the climb.
Twin Peaks' owner Randy DeWitt -- who used to own Rockfish in Southlake's Town Square -- wants to take over the vacant Red Lobster location on the State Highway 114 service road between State Highway 26 and Southlake Boulevard/Farm-to-Market Road 1709.
Normally, moving a new restaurant into the old Lobster shell wouldn't be a problem, because the former seafood site is still zoned for commercial buildings. But Southlake's building code now says the siding material isn't up to city code, so DeWitt would need to replace it.
To save money, DeWitt wants to replace the siding with a concrete-based material that would be a lot cheaper and would be "more in line with the mountain-lodge theme of Twin Peaks," according to a Southlake Journal story.
And because DeWitt needs a permit to change the siding, here's where the public gets involved...
SPIN-ING IT
To grant approval of the change, DeWitt pitched the idea to a SPIN meeting on Monday. SPIN is Southlake's Program for the Involvement of Neighborhoods, which is staffed by a group of representatives from 11 areas in the city. Residents at the meeting were clear in their opposition.
"No one is suggesting that we don't like mountain lodges," resident Barb Walker told the Journal. "But from your website, it is clear that is a place full of sexual innuendo and is exploitive of women."
SPIN chairman Ronald Evans suggested the restaurant could change its name or the skimpy uniforms to be less offensive to the community. We doubt the restaurant would consider doing that.
In a statement, Randy DeWitt compared Twin Peaks' waitresses to professional cheerleaders.
"Every professional sports team in the NBA, NHL and NFL utilizes attractive cheerleaders to add excitement and energy to the experience of attending a game," he said. "Win or lose, I always enjoy going to a Mavericks, Stars or Dallas Cowboys game because they make it so entertaining to be there. At Twin Peaks, we try to create a similarly fun environment, though in our case, the wait-staff are our cheerleaders."
Twin Peaks currently has locations in Addison, Bedford, Frisco, Lewisville, McKinney, Mesquite, and Plano -- yet this is the first time DeWitt says he's had opposition to opening.
"That should tell you that Southlake is different," Leigh Wambsganss told the Southlake Journal. "There is a lot of opposition to having something like this here."
'DEAL-BREAKER'
The opposition to opening might not be a deal-breaker, but without approval of the materials change, DeWitt says he might have to walk away from the location.
Maybe he'll just walk down the road a little -- at 114 and 121 in Grapevine are three "breastaurants:" Hooters, Bone Daddy's and the Tilted Kilt.
Get More: Proposed Twin Peaks Restaurant Draws Fire at SPIN Meeting in Southlake
