Hooters aims for a new clientele – women

Hooters now wants to become the destination for ladies who lunch (Getty Images)

Hooters, the American diner chain famous for its ribs and chicken wings – just kidding, its global fame can be attributed to the buxom waitresses in orange hot pants rather than anything that's actually on the menu – is undergoing a makeover.

Having suffered declining revenues for the last four years, the breastaurant has wised up to the fact that alienating half the population probably isn't great for business. That's right, Hooters now wants to become the destination for ladies who lunch.

But rather than give the staff more clothes to wear, Hooters has decided the best way to appeal to women is to introduce more salads on the menu and replace the manly dark wood with more contemporary furnishings. It is also making the windows bigger, in the hope that passing women will peer inside and realise it's not as seedy as they perhaps thought.

"There's an opportunity to broaden the net without putting wool sweaters on the Hooters girls," says Terry Marks, the man in charge of turning business around. "Everything we do should appeal more to women, but nothing we will do will turn men off." Which basically means the low-cut vests and hotpants are staying. Only now you can get a tuna Niçoise.