Appearance and the restaurant industry

Okay, hopefully this isn't the worst first blog post in history. It's long, I apologize in advance!
I have been looking over the materials about discrimination based on appearance. The first thought that came to my mind was my first job. Let us briefly travel back through time: I applied at a Chili's that was going to open in my neighborhood in Arizona; I wore a respectable summer dress and made sure I looked extra tan, because this is what I valued at age 15. I ended up getting the job, even though I was painfully shy and applying for a hostess position--which required quite a bit of speaking! When we had our intensive grand opening training session, I looked at the other 8 hostesses as we were all lined up (and ogled), and they looked exactly like me. I'm kind of scrawny and these other hostesses were definitely in my boxing weight class. Even the one male host was noticeably slender.
Upon finding my interview polaroid, I later asked one of my female bosses why I ended up getting picked. She said basically because she thought I looked cute. Period, the end.

So I realize that Chili's is not exactly a beacon establishment, it's not even at the airline level of prestige, but this scenario is still kind of sad, considering how many of these restaurants dot our landscape. But back to my memory tangent: after about six months, a newly hired host was fired for "getting in the way," and he happened to be much larger than much of the employees. But this theme didn't go across the board: the male bartenders were not slim or toned, even in the vaguest sense, and they were "front of the house" employees. The management would always reiterate that we wanted the restaurant to attract people--but we were in mall-land, so was this really going to be a difficult endeavor? If each employee didn't fit the mold, would we be known as the "average Chili's," the one that nobody goes to because there is a hotter one in the next town? Did an employee's expanded waistline affect purchases of the trademark quesadillas? Considering our customer base of 30-something parents with children and the elderly clientele from the retirement communities, the answer seemed to be "not in the slightest."

So this is a meandering post, but I guess my question starts with: should these restaurants have this sort of license? Are they allowed a secret scorecard of attractiveness from 1-10? Is it justifiable in food service industries? Does the thought of working at a chain restaurant nauseate anyone else? I have many questions, actually.