YOUR SPACE: Work perks at Hooters really take her places

Shy might not be the word that comes to mind when Aimee Chuhaloff sashays into the room in orange short-shorts and a tight tank top.

That's what draws the customers. That, and hot wings.

The buxom 27-year-old blonde delivers on the floor - and on the wall.

She's going on her eighth year as a Hooters waitress and Hooters calendar girl.

"It's brought me out of my shell," she says. "You are forced to talk to people."

Before Hooters, she wanted to be a model but was told she'd have to drop 30 pounds and "be a cookie-cutter person." Before that, "I actually wanted to be a kindergarten teacher," she says.

Hooters has taken her to places she'd never have gone as a kindergarten teacher.

She has gathered stamps on her passport doing photo shoots on exotic sandy beaches and promotions.

She landed a small spot in the calendar her first year on the job.

"Hooters liked me the way I was," she says.

She's a poster pullout in the 2009 Hooters calendar. "It's an international tryout every year," she says.

Three years ago, she made the cover and did a publicity tour. She spent six months dealing blackjack when the Hooters casino opened in Las Vegas.

There's a photo shrine to Chuhaloff at The Citadel Hooters where she works.

"She has quite a following," manager Craig Dorcey says. "We're not an upscale hoity-toity type of restaurant; it's a work-to-the-music have-a-good-time place."

Customer Alan Davis has a good time under Chuhaloff's wing with his Tuesday Night Men's Club pals. "She's a great lady," he says. "We talk racing stuff."

She talks Lakers basketball like a guy.

"There are a lot of people who are Nuggets fans who like to talk crap with me, so I talk crap with them," she says.

Still, if you put guys, beer and bosoms in one room, things are bound to happen.

"I don't get hit on as much as people think," Chuhaloff says. "I put off a different vibe."

The Hooters image is something she deals with - and defends - daily.

"My sister thought it was degrading," she says. "Then when she came in and saw what it's about, she applied for a job." Her brother cooks at the north Hooters.

"Little girls come in and want to wear Hooters T-shirts and be a Hooters girl when they grow up," she says. "I don't think that's degrading. This job lets you be who you want to be."

Chuhaloff keeps a low profile off the job. Classmates at Pikes Peak Community College don't know of her Hooters connection.

"I always wear a baseball hat to school, and jeans and Converse tennis shoes," she says.

"Sometimes they come in here and don't know it's me."

She's majoring in business marketing, with plans to design swimsuits for the over-endowed female figure.

Like hers.

"I'm a very curvy girl, so it's hard for me to find things that fit me. I know what girls need, and there's a lot lacking," she says.

Hooters has brought her out of her skin.

"I had a sheltered upbringing," she says. "I was really shy. I'd sit by myself at lunch. I never go to my high school reunion because nobody would know who I was."

They might now.

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Tell me your stories: 636-0253 or andrea.brown@gazette.com