Hooters, a restaurant chain most famous for its all-female staff serving wings in skimpy clothing, is filing for bankruptcy, the company announced on Monday.
Hooters of America is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas after accumulating $376 million in debt, and through the bankruptcy process, plans to sell off all 100 of its company-owned restaurants to two franchisee groups that operate Hooters locations in Tampa, Florida, in an effort to keep the chain afloat.
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone in our efforts to reinforce Hooters’ financial foundation and continue delivering the guest-obsessed hospitality experience and delicious food our customers and communities have come to expect,” said Sal Melilli, chief executive officer of Hooters of America, in a Monday press release.
The company plans to exit bankruptcy in “approximately 90-120 days.”
The bankruptcy process comes with an attempt at a rebrand, or “re-Hooterization,” of the company, Neil Kiefer, the CEO of a company that runs a group of original Hooters restaurants, told Bloomberg.
The leadership is moving toward a more PG-13 vision of the company: no more “bikini nights,” as Bloomberg put it.
“You go to some parts of the country and people say, ‘Oh I could never go to Hooters, my wife would kill me,”’ Kiefer said. “That’s depressing to us. We want to change that.”
Hooters was founded in 1983 and became famous for its chicken wings and its female staff wearing orange short shorts and low-cut tank tops.
The chain has been the subject of numerous scandals in recent years that have severely impacted the company, including lengthy legal battles over racial and gender discrimination.
Most famous was a 1996 lawsuit where Hooters was accused of “employment discrimination based on sex in hiring only female food servers, bartenders, and hosts, with the intent of providing a sexually stimulating aura for male patrons.”
In addition to scandals, casual dining as a whole suffered in 2024, with “TGI Fridays, Red Lobster, Bucca di Beppo, and Rubio’s Coastal Grill all filing for bankruptcy last year,” the New York Post reported.
According to court filings, Hooters has approximately 5,957 employees in 151 directly owned stores in 22 states, in addition to 154 franchise locations in 19 states and 17 countries, per Bloomberg.
The company confidently asserted in an FAQ announcing the bankruptcy: ”Is Hooters going out of business? No. Hooters is here to stay.”
