I visited Hooters and saw why the chain is facing bankruptcy

Located about 40 minutes by car outside Washington, DC, this Hooters is near Dulles International Airport as well as several major highways and freeways, including Route 66.

The parking spaces immediately around the restaurant were full, which I found surprising given that it was 11:20 a.m. on a Thursday. This Hooters had opened just 20 minutes earlier.

These photos of women in bikinis and Hooters outfits were in a vestibule as I walked into Hooters. Once I entered the dining room, the hostess seated me right away.

While there were plenty of empty tables, the bar was packed, mostly with people who appeared to be men who were middle-aged or older. One person was even dressed in business casual and looking at spreadsheets on a laptop.

Overall, the restaurant was just under half full less than 20 minutes after it had opened.

When I visited a Red Lobster last September at a similar time on a weekday, it was nearly empty.

And last summer, a Cracker Barrel I went to was about half-full during prime breakfast time.

The Hooters in Chantilly, by contrast, was a little busier than expected. My server told me that many were regulars who work at office parks nearby and like to stop by for lunch.

Right after the hostess showed me to my table, a server came over and introduced herself. She also brought over this napkin, on which she had hand-written her name.

All of the waitstaff at this restaurant were wearing the same short shorts and tank tops that I'd seen in ads for Hooters.

My server was very attentive to me, a guy dining alone, stopping by every 5-10 minutes to make sure I had everything I needed or just chat.

If you're a lonely single heterosexual man, that might constitute great service, but it might not appeal to others.

Hiring only "attractive servers that suit the male gaze is really alienating at least 50% of your dining population," Lilly Jan, a lecturer of food and beverage at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, said in an interview.

My server was great, and at no point did I feel uncomfortable, nor was my wife bothered about me visiting Hooters. My (female) editor, however, was very keen to make sure I was OK dining there.

The menu had a decent selection of drinks and food, though I had read that the chicken wings were one of the most popular dishes here.

The Hooters menu included beef burgers as well as a fried chicken sandwich.

I ended up ordering 10 breaded wings, half in the honey sriracha sauce and half with Hooters' Daytona Beach sauce, as well as some curly fries and and a peach lemonade.

The peach lemonade was served in a plastic orange cup.

I counted 26 televisions around this Hooters restaurant. I don't spend much time in sports bars, but they made it seem like a decent place to catch a game or a UFC fight.

A few decades ago, having a huge, flat-screen TV at home was a luxury. Now, it's pretty common. And many sports are now broadcast on streaming services or other easily available channels that people can watch from their living rooms.

That has limited the appeal of bars like Hooters that cater to sports fans, Cornell's Jan said.

One exception is UFC fights, which still charge pay-per-view fees. Fans might be more tempted to go to a sports bar if they can watch the fight there and spend the money instead on some drinks and food, Jan said.

"They're paying for the rights to broadcast that in their places so that people don't have to spend the money to buy the game," Jan said.

My server brought an extra plate for the bones, which I appreciated.

I liked the slight sweetness of the honey Sriracha wings more than the Daytona Beach sauce. A bit of ranch on the side provided a nice contrast.

Reviews of Hooters' food often mention the chicken wings as one of the best menu items. I thought that the wings were good, though they weren't quite as crispy as ones I've had elsewhere, such as at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Lots of restaurants, from Raising Cane's to Dave's Hot Chicken, have stepped up their fried chicken offerings over the last several years. That makes it difficult for a chain like Hooters to stand out, Jan said.

"The whole category of chicken-heavy menus has just been blowing up a whole lot," she said.

I would have preferred them fried a little longer.

The wings were not great but also not terrible, and the fries were slightly underdone. The peach lemonade was a little too sweet.

With a 20% tip, I paid just over $34 for my meal.

As I walked by the display, I thought about how I couldn't remember the last time I saw anyone wearing a Hooters T-shirt or baseball cap. I have, however, seen people wearing apparel promoting other brands out in public, from convenience store chain Buc-ee's to burger chain In-N-Out.

Jan, who teaches at Cornell, said she never sees any Hooters apparel when she steps into lecture halls filled with Gen Z students. It's rare to find even at vintage or thrift stores, she said.

"There's just not an interest in sustaining that brand," she said. "And this is a generation that has their pretty ironic sense of humor, so that's pretty significant."

Hooters offers catering as well as pick-up and delivery.

Many millennial and Gen Z consumers gravitate toward brands that match their own values, including social inclusion across genders and sexualities, Jan said.

"This slightly dated idea of hot women serving you food is not necessarily part of that more inclusive generational narrative," she said.

The food at Hooters was alright, and the service was friendly.

But once you looked past the scantily clad waitresses, Hooters felt undifferentiated, just like other fast-casual dining chains that had their heyday decades ago. To me, it seemed like Kiefer had a point: Whether it's better food or something else, Hooters needs to give customers a better reason to stop by.

Big turnarounds in the restaurant world aren't unheard of. Chili's, for example, has spent the last few years remaking itself via value deals and a cheeky social media presence to win over younger diners even as inflation made eating out less affordable.

And over a decade ago, Domino's improved sales by revamping its pizza and admitting to customers in ads that its food wasn't so great.

Those are the kinds of moves that Hooters should be considering as it emerges from bankruptcy, Jan said.

"I think that they really need to make some very strategic and decisive actions to modernize the brand," she said.

Do you work in the restaurant industry and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com.