Hooters has taken over and is renovating the old San Remo hotel just off the strip in Las Vegas.

Hooters Casino Hotel will appeal to a decidedly down- to-earth crowd, the partners promise. Hooters girls, in trademark orange and white, will stride the casino’s floors serving cocktails. Outside, at the resort’s poolside Hooters Beach Club, Hooters girls in slightly sexier outfits will serve customers to the sounds of reggae in a Key West setting, Droste said.



Other entertainment concepts inside the resort will include a traditional Hooters restaurant and a Pete & Shorty’s grill restaurant, which is a small restaurant concept the Hooters founders also developed. Hooters Casino Hotel will have one upscale restaurant, Dan Marino’s Fine Food and Spirits.



However, in general, “We’re not going after the rich guys, the high-end guys,” Hessling said. “We’re going after the guys who like NASCAR and football and beer and all- American cheerleaders.”



The resort may need to shoot for a less-affluent demographic, given its relatively modest scale. At 711 rooms, the San Remo is tiny compared with the biggest casinos on the Strip, including the 5,034- room MGM Grand and the 4,427-room Luxor Las Vegas. In recent years, the San Remo was profitable, Hessling said, but lacked a strong identity in increasingly glitzy Las Vegas.

No word yet on whether Hooters Air will begin service to Vegas.

(Hat tip to David Rowell.)