Actually, I'm a Rusty's kind of guy.
The underground legend I heard on my decade ago, mid life crisis, nearly zero to past hero, sojourn of Florida, was that Hooter's is a cleaned up version of Rusty's. When I look back on my time house sitting for Paige, owner of Satellite Beach's Sports Page Bar, I "remember" 3 Rusty's locations, but now it seems there is just the Port Canaveral location.
Rusty's girls were the not ready for prime time originals; skimpier outfits, multiple tatoos and peircings, always either hung over or lit, Cocoa Beach surf Betty's. The 6 guys who brought us Hooter's reputedly were Rusty's regulars, but they decided to "clean up" their girls, for various reasons (wives?), and the rest is history.
When I was arranging my cave training, the Gainesville Hooter's was my command center. I patronized nearly every South Florida establishment in that genre, and while Hooter's is the white bread version of all those pirate's dens, I would welcome a Hooter's on Maui.
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