Hooters, the restaurant chain known for its chicken wings, its all-female serving staff in revealing outfits and its slogan — “delightfully tacky, yet unrefined” — has filed for bankruptcy in a Texas court, the company announced on Monday.
Under the bankruptcy agreement, a group that includes the company’s founders — who independently run about a third of the franchised locations in the United States — will buy the company-owned restaurants in the United States from the private equity firm that owns the chain.
The complicated bankruptcy filing is a way to keep many of the restaurants open.
“Our renowned Hooters restaurants are here to stay,” the company said in its announcement. During the bankruptcy proceedings, Hooters restaurants will continue operating — as the company said on a site explaining the transaction, “It’s always hang time at Hooters.”
Hooters, proud of its Buffalo chicken wings but famous for the low-cut tops and bright orange hot pants worn by its waitresses, has more than 400 locations across 42 states and 29 countries. Some of those restaurants, including the international locations, are run as franchises and will not be affected by the bankruptcy process, the company said.
After the process is completed, all of the chain’s locations will be franchises.
Reports that Hooters was considering filing for bankruptcy have been swirling for weeks, and first appeared in Bloomberg News. Last summer, Hooters closed dozens of restaurants.
This week, Neil Kiefer, the chief executive of an independent company that runs a group of original Hooters restaurants, told Bloomberg that he was planning what he called a “re-Hooterization,” or rebrand, which would include ending the chain’s “bikini nights.”
Mr. Kiefer is among the proposed buyers of Hooters locations from their private equity owners. “As we look toward the future, we are committed to restoring the Hooters brand back to its roots,” he said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy process.
The rebrand will aim to give Hooters a more wholesome image. In 2021, the company faced backlash after changing its uniforms to include shorts that were so tiny that they resembled underwear. Hooters quickly reverted its policy, giving staff members a choice of what shorts to wear.
Hooters is not the only famous dining chain to struggle over the past few years, partly because of fallout from pandemic closures and inflation squeezing consumers’ budgets. In November, TGI Friday’s filed for bankruptcy protection, and last May, Red Lobster, the American seafood staple, did the same.
Hooters started 42 years ago, when “six businessmen with absolutely no previous restaurant experience got together and decided to open a place they couldn’t get kicked out of,” according to the chain’s website. The first location opened in Clearwater, Fla., in October 1983.
The chain grew steadily, and its wide-eyed owl logo and orange lettering became ubiquitous in the 1990s and early 2000s, both on its many restaurants and in popular culture. In its heyday, Hooters’ branding could be seen at shovel racing competitions, on an arena football team and at a pro golf tour, to name a few. It even appeared on an airline, Hooters Air, which operated for three years, from 2003 to 2006.