Shawna the Maid

I love all the interesting people I meet at Hooters.  While restaurants are always good places to meet people, Hooters seems to bring extra special people out of the woodwork – I mean this both positively and negatively.  Like the Red Ladies.  Or the ever infamous Nylon Man.  Then there was rapper Twista, who was a douche and three quarters.  Of course there are also all the “regular” people who have sweet jobs like working for the Attorney General or building log homes for Russian mafia.  Yes, I’ve really met all those people and more at Hooters.  And I love every minute of it.

I'll let you guess which one Shawn is.

Amidst all that awesome, recently I met possibly one of my favorite Hooters customers ever.  On an overcast Tuesday, this man made his 250^th visit to a Hooters at my store.  While 250 Hooters may seem impressive, more impressive is the fact that he visited each and every one of them in a French maid costume.

Now before you scream creep, let me give you a little background.  Way back in 2005 Shawn, who was dating a Hooters Girl at the time, made a bet with his girlfriend that the Steelers wouldn’t win the Super Bowl.  It seemed a lock for Shawn.  The Steelers needed to win the next eight games in a row to make it reality. 

So he made the bet and terms were agreed upon.  While the bet seemed laughable, the conditions seemed even more so.  As they sat at dinner in a Texas Hooters on a French maid theme night it was agreed upon that if the Steelers won Super Bowl, Shawn would visit every Hooters in the country in a French maid outfit.  It seemed like a joke – a very funny one - that would never amount to anything.

Shoe cleaning bitch.

Then the Steelers started winning.  First one game, then two and on it went until the Steelers unbelievably won the Super Bowl.  Shawn’s fate was sealed.  Before he knew it his girlfriend had ordered a costume online and began mapping out Hooters to correspond with Shawn’s business trips.  Not one to back down, Shawn has been visiting Hooters as Shawna the maid ever since, slowly working off hid debt. 

As he crisscrosses the country his (now ex) girlfriend carefully documents his progress on Facebook where Shawn has developed quite a following.  Pictures go up of each and every visit where Hooters Girls make Shawn do everything from sweeping the floors to bussing tables.  Somewhere along the line Shawn became “Hooters bitch” and the name has stuck ever since.

And finally, I was contacted.  To avoid any confusion, Shawn always contacts the stores and a few girls that work there prior to his visits.  At first I’ll admit I was a little skeptical.  Some dude with a blurred face (because of his job and clients) dressed in a maid costume messaged me on Facebook.  You’d probably be suspicious at first too.  But after a little Facebook creeping and a message or two I quickly realized that Shawn was just a cool dude who was a man of his word.  That’s pretty awesome in my book.

Our stuff for Shawn: sign, 250th visit plate, discipline form
he was late, tooth brushes for cleaning and his
certificate validating his visit.

Like 249 Hooters before us, we spent the afternoon embarrassing Shawn.  As an official visit, Shawn must do everything the Hooters Girls ask of him in order to get his certificate signed (also the girlfriend’s genius idea).  We tried not to disappoint.  We made him clean tables, dust blinds and shine silverware.  Dreamy even crushed up crackers deliberately for him to sweep.

And while all that was in good fun, I can honestly say that Shawn was just a genuinely interesting person.  Here was a man with a big fancy job and important things to do who didn’t take himself too seriously.  He didn’t life get in the way of life.  That is something I can really appreciate.  Even if he does it in a maid costume.