On Thursday, September 29, 2011, Ker’s WingHouse Bar & Grill, the Florida based restaurant chain that specializes in hot wings, great values, and WingHouse Girls, will open its twentieth location in Florida.
The location at 775 W. Brandon Blvd is an exciting new addition for WingHouse founder, owner and former Dallas Cowboy Crawford Ker.
“We are very pleased with this newest location and excited to open early in football season,” Crawford said. “My goal for seventeen years has been the same: build up Florida and then build up the country. I am very excited we are making that dream a reality.”
Crawford played college ball at the University of Florida, where he earned All-American honors and was on the 1984 team that won the first Southeastern Conference Championship for the school. Drafted in 1985 by the Cowboys, he played there until 1990 and was voted to the team of the decade by the Dallas Cowboy Weekly.
In the years since he retired from football Crawford’s been busy. He founded a restaurant in Largo, a community wedged between Clearwater and St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast, and named it Ker’s WingHouse Bar & Grill. The restaurant was an instant success, and soon Crawford was opening restaurants throughout Florida. This newest location in the Florida market is the twentieth for the restaurant company.
Ker won a $1.2-million jury award from Hooters in late 2004, which had sued him for trademark violations for allegedly using their uniforms and decor. After a three-week trial in which lawyers discussed hula hoops, surfboards, scrunchy socks, pantyhose and something called “vicarious sexual recreation”, the jury ruled that no trademark infringement existed and Hooters was penalized for their frivolous lawsuit. Hooters appealed the decision, but in June, 2006, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld the verdict.
The grand opening will commence with a ribbon cutting by the Brandon Chamber of Commerce at 3:00PM and will officially be open to the public at 4:00PM. From 6:00PM-8:00PM restaurant guests will have the opportunity for autographs and meet and greet with Crawford Ker, fellow NFL Alumni, and various other local celebrities.
“I’ve always said we were going to grow,” Crawford said. “This year people will begin to see the vision I’ve always had. We aren’t done yet.”