Booty shorts and all-American wings: The rise and fall of Hooters, from boom to bankruptcy

The chain, known for its fried chicken wings and scantily dressed staff, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday after 42 years in the business.

Apr 1, 2025 - 13:53

Booty shorts and all-American wings: The rise and fall of Hooters, from boom to bankruptcy

Hooters, an American fast-food chain known for chicken wings and scantily dressed staff, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. — Hooters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.
Carsten Rehder/picture alliance via Getty Images

American fast-food chain Hooters filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
Hooters is known for its fried chicken wings and scantily dressed wait staff.
Here's how the brand rose and fell in the 42 years it's been around.

The restaurant apocalypse has claimed another victim: Hooters of America.

The fast-food chain, known for its chicken wings served by waitresses in bright orange booty shorts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday in the US Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas.

The news of the filing came one day short of Hooters' 42nd anniversary. The company was incorporated on April Fool's Day in 1983.

The company said in a press release on Monday that its restaurants will remain open to customers and that business will operate as usual.

It added that it would sell some company-owned stores to a franchise group backed by the company's founders. The company said it aims to emerge from bankruptcy in about 90 to 120 days.

The filing comes as restaurant chains face a difficult stretch. Several other eateries, such as Red Lobster, Bar Louie, and TGI Friday's Inc., have filed for bankruptcy in the past year.

Here's a recap of Hooters' 42 years in the business.

The company was founded in 1983 in Florida.

The original Hooters restaurant in Clearwater, Florida. The company was started in 1983 in Florida. — The company was started in 1983 in Florida, with its first outlet located in Clearwater, Florida.
Tamara Lush/AP

Hooters opened its first outlet on October 4, 1983, in Clearwater, Florida.

It was founded by six men without restaurant experience.

"Back in 1983 in Clearwater, Florida, six businessmen with no restaurant experience whatsoever got together to open a place they couldn't get kicked out of. True story," the Hooters' website reads.

Since then, it has expanded both domestically and abroad.

A Hooters outlet in Shanghai. — Hooters grew to over 420 locations worldwide in about 40 years.
Associated Press

According to its website, the company now operates more than 420 Hooters restaurants, both company-owned and franchised, in 42 states in the US and 29 countries internationally.

Hooters opened its first international store outside North America in Singapore in 1996, and it continues to operate today.

Apart from Singapore, it also has a presence in Thailand, China, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, among others.

The brand built a distinctive identity as much on its food as on its wait staff's outfits.

Hooters girls on pit lane prior to the start of the NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on August 15, 2021 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway IN. — Hooters is best known for their scantily dressed servers.
Jeffrey Brown/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

On its website, Hooters describes itself as "Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined."

The chain is perhaps best known for its staff's uniforms. Its workforce of largely female servers is dressed in skin-tight white tank tops with plunging necklines paired with bright orange booty shorts.

"Craveable food, cold beer, and all the sports you could possibly watch on wall-to-wall big screen TVs," Hooters proclaims on its website.

"And let's not forget the Hooters Girls," it adds.

Its offerings are distinctly American — chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, tacos, and cakes.

It has released its Hooters Calendar every year since 1986, which is filled with pictures of swimsuit models. The 2025 calendar, which is sold out on the company's website, was priced at $19.95.

Hooters briefly experimented with the airline business.

A Hooters plane arrives at Gate 47 for the inauguration of the airline's new service between Newark and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at Newark Liberty International Airport. — Hooters launched a low-cost air service in the US in 2003.
Matthew Peyton/Getty Images

In 2003, Hooters launched a low-cost air service that operated domestically within the US. Two Hooters waitresses were on board each flight to tend to and entertain passengers.

The airline's planes were emblazoned with the brand's signature owl logo and painted in its distinctive shade of orange.

Hooters Air shut down three years later in 2006, citing a $40 million loss.

Like the rest of the food industry, Hooters was not spared from the effects of the pandemic.

Hooters reopening its outlets during the pandemic.
Business Wire

However, Hooters' CEO, Sal Melilli, said in 2020 that customers had "pent-up demand" during the pandemic, and the company saw them flood back when it opened its restaurants again.

Melilli said the chain reversed its declining sales and achieved flat comparable sales after reopening Hooters restaurants in 2020. The eatery reopened its doors in mid-2020.

The brand has encountered financial woes in recent years.

Hooters Restaurant in Los Angeles, California on September 11, 2017. — Hooters deviated from its roots as a family-friendly restaurant, its founder said.
Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Hooters took out a five-year $70 million loan in 2022 for "working capital and general corporate purposes," according to a press release.

The bankruptcy filing on Monday said that Hooters suffered from "decreased profitability and substantial debt service payment."

The bankruptcy plan, if approved, would give Hooters $40 million of debtor-in-possession financing.

In a March interview with Bloomberg, Neil Kiefer, the chief executive of Hooters' founding group, HMC Hospitality Group, said the chain suffered when it deviated from its roots as a family-friendly restaurant.

"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 to Bloomberg. "That's depressing to us. We want to change that."

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