Local Dude's Lawsuit To Be A Hooters Waiter Ends With A Settlement

Nikolai Grushevski sued Hooters in January after the restaurant didn’t hire him as a Hooters Girl.

Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing at Hooters, told Hair Balls at the time, “If we lose this go around, you can next expect hairy legged guys in the Rockettes to line up and male models in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.”

Hair Balls can’t say for certain that Hooters lost, but the lawsuit has been settled.

“I’m happy for my client, and I wouldn’t have recommended he resolve it if I didn’t think it was the right move,” attorney Martin Shellist tells Hair Balls. “In a civil suit you can hope for two things: an injunction or money damages. Any resolution is a victory.”

The details of the settlement are confidential, but, according to court documents, Hooters denied it discriminated against Grushevski, and Shellist filed a motion for a potential class action suit. A couple weeks later, the case was mediated in Houston, and the next day the lawsuit was settled.

Much of the original lawsuit touches on a bigger issue of Hooters
allegedly discriminating against men, and Shellist compared it to
Southwest Airlines hiring women stewardesses “…to exploit female
sexuality as a marketing tool to attract customers and insure
profitability.”

But for the time being, it looks like men won’t be working as Hooters Girls.

“He’s not going to work [at Hooter’s],” Shellist says, adding that
Grushevski already works at another restaurant. “I think my lawsuit
speaks for itself. Whether or not Hooters will make changes in the
future, I can’t say.”

Hair Balls hasn’t heard back from Hooters, but we’ll be sure to update when we do.