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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Hooters, the tongue-in-cheek eatery that parlayed spicy
chicken wings and busty waitresses in skimpy outfits into an international
restaurant chain, is opening its first ever casino and hotel a stone’s throw
from the Las Vegas Strip.

The grand opening Thursday marks the latest foray for the "delightfully
tacky, yet unrefined" restaurant that began in 1983 in Clearwater, Fla., and
later branched into calendars, merchandise and even an airline.

"The Hooters customer is already a Vegas kind of customer. They’re a little
punky, they’re a little high energy, they’re looking for a getaway — and all of
those things just match up," said Ed Droste, one of the six men who founded
Hooters. Four of those original partners together own a third of the renovated
hotel-casino.

The 696-room property with nine restaurant/bars is a revamp of the Hotel San
Remo and, despite its makeover, remains a midget compared with the 5,035-room
MGM Grand across the street on a corner of the Strip that offers 14,000 hotel
rooms.

The Hotel San Remo, first built in 1973, has been run for the past 17 years
by the Izumi family of Japan who maintained a one-third stake in the rebranded
business.

The San Remo’s revenues and profits stagnated for at least the past five
years, dwarfed in the shadow of the MGM Grand, New York-New York, Excalibur and
Tropicana hotels on the nearest corner.

"San Remo was a nice little business," said Richard Langlois, senior vice
president of marketing for Hooters Casino Hotel. "But the property can be better
utilized with a brand like Hooters."

Hooters’ operators hope to draw from a customer base of about 61 million
annual visitors at its some 400 restaurants in the United States, Canada,
Europe, South America, Asia and the Caribbean.

Information and reservation hotlines have been set up at 80 restaurants in
the Southwest, and staff will be rewarded with discounts and free rooms for
promoting bookings, executives said.

Talks are ongoing with Hooters of America to fly customers to Las Vegas on
Hooters Air, they said. The Atlanta-based company bought the franchise and
licensing rights from the founders and launched the airline in 2003.

Hooters casino operators have rebranded almost every inch of the hotel,
including using subtly placed borderline gags about the female form to appeal to
a core audience of mostly married men aged 25 to 54.

Observers said the company might carve out a niche with a down-market
offering in an area of the Strip that has become more expensive.

"You know their market. It’s relatively blue collar and young," said
University of Nevada, Las Vegas history professor Hal Rothman, who wrote Neon
Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century."

"There’s really nothing else on the Strip that caters to that market," he
said.

The revamp was paid for with $125 million in debt. Langlois said he expects
to more than triple the San Remo’s annual revenue to about $100 million and have
an operating profit of $22 million to $24 million.