Breastaurants ... where to go on Gulf Coast

Florida likes to think it created the concept of the “breastaurant”. You get the idea ... the food and drink are served by voluptuous persons of the female gender.

While that is undoubtedly not true the arrival of the original Hooters in Clearwater in 1983 certainly went along way to legitimizing the concept. Now it seems that out of work construction workers in Florida to out of work bankers in New York to out of work automakers in the Midwest are happy to drown their sorrows while looking at cleavage when turning away from sport on an array of TV screens. It seems it’s all about escapism.

For visitors to Florida a visit to the very first Hooters in Clearwater should be on any itinerary. Despite its supposed reputation Hooters is a family place with kids there eating their burgers of chicken wings. I usually skip the wings and have a grilled fish sandwich and a pint. Most people I take like to buy a tee-shirt sporting the company motto: “"delightfully tacky yet unrefined".

For Brit tourists and locals in this area the Breastaurant of choice has to the Tilted Kilt, also in Clearwater, which is about five minutes from Hooters as the chicken wing flies. Reason for its growing popularity is the managers have discovered Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta.

I went in there a couple of months back and I was the only person at the bar interested in the game. I was back there for a Liverpool v Everton game recently and there was a good crowd of Scouse accents around. If you like a deal get there for the second half of a midweek game and all beers – yes including imports – are $2.50 a pint.

That’s the best price I have ever found.

If you like boxing with your breasts then the Wing House chain is the one for you. Wing House is a clone of Hooters. But they invest in bringing in PPV boxing on TV if there are big fights on a Saturday night.

Breasts, beer and Joe Calzaghe. It just doesn’t get any better than that.