Hooters, Shanghai

So…true story…we’re looking for an authentic Chinese restaurant to try near Zun Yi Nan Lu when my eyes get distracted…

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Well, in honour of my dad (who is a HUGE birdwatching fan), I thought that going to an owl-themed restaurant would be a great way to spend the day!

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I was getting quite excited as we went in, because clearly birdwatching in China has no social stigma attached to it (as is the case in the UK). The bar was bright, clean and very cheerful.

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There really wasn’t a single anorak in sight…I was starting to wonder if we’d walked into the wrong restaurant! There seemed to be the odor of ‘lady’ in the air, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on its source. I motioned to one of the twitchers to come over…

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And then I realised that we may have come to the wrong place…it was in fact an American Diner masquerading as a bird-watching den…but since we’d already ordered, we figured we’d stick it out…

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This is Annie, our waitress. I know her name because she wrote it down on a napkin as we sat down. Since I’m rarely on first name terms with serving staff, we asked her a few questions about how much fun it was to work in Hooters, where she was from, what time she finished…but before she could answer…

…all of the staff grabbed chairs, pulled them into the aisle of the bar and stood up straight…then danced in sync to some trashy pop song (hey I didn’t say I didn’t like it) called ‘L-O-V-E’ for about 5 minutes. I (foolishly) thought it would be a little bit ‘Bangkok pool hall’ to film this…looking back, I messed up.

There seemed to be a hierachy to staff, with each level being granted a different outfit. All black is the hottest…followed by the trainees (pretty hot, but sometimes with a flaw (like a moustache or a limp)) wearing white tops with orange shorts…and the kitchen staff wore black tshirts with black trousers. This may seem like peripheral info, until you see….

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…a brown hoody?! Everyone’s wearing the skimpiest of skimp and you’re wearing a brown hoody? Either this girl was the BOSS of the BOSS or someone didn’t want her flaunting her assets near our food. Either way, sadly, I don’t see a future in this business for her.

But these two…

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…have a long career ahead, and luckily:

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I have the autograph!