This document discusses the business practice of "breastaurants" - restaurants that primarily hire attractive women as servers. It argues that this practice is legally justified under the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) which allows discrimination if it is reasonably necessary to the normal operation of a particular business. Research by Daniel Hamermesh finds that attractive people tend to sell more products and attract more customers. The document concludes that from a business perspective, maximizing profits through hiring attractive employees is a wise strategy for "breastaurants."

1. Oklahoma State University
School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration
Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) – The Secret (Saucy) Ingredient That Enables the Exceptional
Employment Status of “Model” Employees and Why Hiring More Aesthetically Attractive Employees in Hospitality
Makes For a Good Business Practice
David Paster.
ABSTRACT
Successful “breastaurants” rely on one key differentiating
variable, which is the provision of unique work force solely
comprised of generally accepted to be sensually attractive /
aesthetically pleasing women acting as servers in a traditional
hospitality environment of a restaurant.
Dr. Daniel S. Hamermash’s salient conclusion of his scientific
research published in the book, Beauty Pays: Why Attractive
People Are More Successful is that better-looking people tend to
sell more products or attract more new customers.
If the business goal a “breastaurant,” as with most revenue seeking
endeavors, is to churn more business and maximize profits to the
firm, then the field of hospitality should recognize the material
value of hiring certain population segments (e.g., attractive
women) for essence based entities as protected under labor law by
the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) provision(s).
LITERATURE REVIEW (CONTINUED) IMPLICATION
LITERATURE REVIEW
The essence of what “breastaurants” are and the value
added to the innuendo laden respective brands (e.g.,
Hooters, Tilted Kilts, Twin Peaks, Heart Attack Grill, Show
Me’s, etc.), is based on the situational suspension of a
concept of egalitarian sexes. Rather, “breastaurants,” like
other commercial hedonic and libertarian enterprises prior,
have found a legal means to not hire individuals who do
not meet the parameters that comprise the essence of the
brand. The labor law caveat is known as the Bona Fide
Occupational Qualification (BFOQ) construct.
The “breastaurant” constructs are not historically novel.
Jurisprudence was established from the very club where
uber-feminist Gloria Steinem went “undercover” to write “I
was a Playboy Bunny”. The New York Human Rights
Appeal Board found that being female was a BFOQ for the
position of Playboy Bunny ™ (“Bevertainers” half a
century before their time) at the Playboy Club ™; “finding
the purpose of the job was to titillate and entice men and
that female sexuality was reasonably necessary to achieve
that purpose. See St. Cross v. Playboy Club, Appeal No.
773, Case No. CFS22618-70 (New York Human Rights
Appeal Board, 1971)” (Brown, 2012).
In other words, there are elements that comprise a facility’s
“essence” or core offering that cannot be practically substituted.
To have attractive women serving in the role of essentially
waitresses cloaked as bunnies was determined reasonable
Dr. Daniel S. Hamermash, author of Beauty Pays: Why
Attractive People Are More Successful, states in an October 27,
2011 Wall Street Journal article by Sue Shellenbarger titled,
“On the Job, Beauty is More than Skin-Deep,” states, “Research
shows that better-looking people tend to sell more products or
attract more new customers” (Shellenbarger, 2011). The same
constructs apply for reverse-gender scenarios such as
“Chippendale” style establishments.
METHODOLOGY
According to George Lowenstein’s 1996 theory of a “cold-hot
empathy gap”, “In a cold state, we do not appreciate how much
our desires will be altered when we are ‘under the influence’ of
arousal. As a result, our behavior reflects a certain naiveté about
the effects the context can have on a choice” (Thaler &
Sunstein, 2009).
Thus, the behavioral effects, as measured by spend, attributable
to arousal need to be measured, compared and contrasted to a
dual index of traditional eat-in restaurants and the more exotic
“breastaurants”.
Using such Key Performance Indicators (KPTs) as duration of
visit, spend per party, and gratuity allotment, variances might be
discovered between traditional (e.g., Applebee's, Chili’s, et al.)
and alluded “breastarurants”.
The statistical analysis of said spend differentiations should
suggest, possibly via a construed composite index, whether
there exists a significant difference between expenditures
(demanded and voluntary) at each type of dining establishment.
At the end of the business day, what counts are the top
and bottom lines (preferably for the breastaurant trade
in short-shorts and tight tops); actually gross and net
revenues.
Since the reality of an establishment receiving greater,
due to extended duration of visitation, sales and
subsequent revenue when more attractive individuals
are employed has been validly and reliably proven by
Dr. Hamermesh in his pioneering work, which is
supported but other concurring research such as found
in the field of behavioral economics, the wise move to
maximize return on investment for a “breastaurant”
operator is to only hire as an attractive and thusly
suitable in terms of revenue generating workforce as
possible.
KEY SOURCES
• Brown. Dan. Can Gender Discriminate or
Provocative Dress Requirements Ever be
Appropriate for Your Employees?. 2012. Hotel
Business Review / Hotel Executive.com. Retrieved
from:
http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2014/can
-gender-discriminate-or-provocative-dress-
requirements-ever-be-appropriate-for-your-
employees
• Shellenbarger, Sue. (2011, October 27, 2011). On
the Job, Beauty is More than Skin-Deep, Wall Street
Journal.
• Thaler, R., & Sunstein, C. (2009). Nudge:
Improving decisions about health, wealth and
happiness. New York: Penguin Books