Listen......... here comes a time when everything has to end ......good times /parties/70's/80'/.....disco/elctronica music /.....etc .....otherwise there would be no end .........hooters had it's day .......there is a younger more vibrant oppoonent ......TWIN PEAKS .....YEP !!!!!!!!yonger hotter and very clean no orange fucking shorts ....greasy looking fucking things ......they wear very lumberjackesque looking gear it is very interesting but the food is great ..........and it is sports bar place ....... hot........don't hate the player hate the game ....business is business ........ or as pablo would say
"negocio est megocio. .....
hooters did great fries and salad ....... but it was a perv's paradise....... much like the twin peaks .....all young and old guys sitting around the bar hoping they might snag a bartender .......... but i was in the biz its a sick biz and these babes like their cash ......goody gumdrops whatever makes you happy .......i am not sure how many guys snag a bartender or waitress i have had that pleasure ......but they area fucking nightmare ....for sure ......the hospitality business is fucking low life servile ....although i am sure the managers test the goods.....like hooters this is what i heard oh well ....its only business ...........you want fries with that !!!!!!>............
I visited Hooters and saw why the chain is facing bankruptcy
Alex Bitter
Updated
9 min read
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The reporter outside Hooters.Alex Bitter/BI
Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy at the end of March.
The chain has struggled with debt and closed some restaurants last year.
I went to a Hooters restaurant in Virginia to see what dining at the restaurant is like.
Your local Hooters could see some big changes soon.
The restaurant chain is famous for its waitstaff, who wear short shorts and tight tank tops. Starting in the early 1980s, it went from a single restaurant in Florida to hundreds across the US. Hooters even briefly operated an airline in the early 2000s.
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But at the end of March, Hooters of America, one of two companies that operates Hooters restaurants in the US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company is owned by the private equity firms Nord Bay Capital and TriArtisan Capital Advisors.
Hooters of America's restaurants are still open during the bankruptcy process. The company plans to sell some of its locations to franchisees who opened the first locations back in the '80s.
Neil Kiefer, the chief executive of Hooters' founding group, HMC Hospitality Group, told Bloomberg last month that post-bankruptcy, he wants to make Hooters more family-friendly. That would include getting rid of "Bikini Nights" and changing the menu to include better-quality ingredients, he said.
I wanted to see what Kiefer and Hooters have to work with to make that transition. Hooters has a specific reputation — some call it a "breastaurant," after all — so rebranding as a family-friendly establishment would be quite a pivot.
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I headed to a Hooters a short drive from my home in Washington, DC, for lunch to see what it's like. Here's what I found:
I visited this Hooters restaurant in Chantilly, Virginia, on a Thursday.
Cars parked outside the Hooters in Chantilly, Virginia.Alex Bitter/BI
Located about 40 minutes by car outside Washington, DC, this Hooters is near Dulles International Airport and 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.
The entryway looked exactly like I expected.
Photos of women in bikinis in the entryway to Hooters.Alex Bitter/BI
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.
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I was surprised by how busy Hooters was in the late morning on a weekday.
There were empty tables but a full bar at Hooters.Alex Bitter/BI
While there were plenty of empty tables, the bar was packed, mostly with what appeared to be middle-aged or older men. 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.
This Hooters location was a lot more lively than other challenged restaurant chains I've visited.
A Red Lobster restaurant in Maryland in 2024.Alex Bitter/Business Insider
When I visited a Red Lobster this past September at a similar time on a weekday, it was nearly empty.
And a Cracker Barrel I went to during the summer was about half-full during prime breakfast time.
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The Hooters in Chantilly, by contrast, was a little busier than I expected. My server told me that many people there were regulars who work at office parks nearby and like to stop by for lunch.
My server left me this personalized napkin with her name on it.
My server at Hooters wrote her name in pink ink on a napkin.Alex Bitter/BI
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 the waitstaff 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 five to 10 minutes to make sure I had everything I needed or just chat.
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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 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.
I picked up the menu to decide what to order for lunch.
The Hooters menu.Alex Bitter/BI
The menu had a decent selection of drinks and food, though I'd read that the chicken wings were one of the most popular dishes here.
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The menu seemed like standard bar food, from three-patty burgers …
The Hooters burger selection.Alex Bitter/BI
The Hooters menu included beef burgers as well as a fried chicken sandwich.
… to chicken wings that come in a variety of sauces.
The chicken section of the Hooters menu.Alex Bitter/BI
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 server brought me my peach lemonade after a few minutes.
A peach lemonade at Hooters.Alex Bitter/BI
The peach lemonade was served in a plastic orange cup.
As I waited for my food, I noticed the TVs all around me.
Two of the 26 TVs I counted at this Hooters restaurant.Alex Bitter/BI
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I counted 26 televisions around this Hooters restaurant. I don't spend much time in sports bars, but it seemed like it would be a decent place to catch a game or a UFC fight.
Big TVs, or a lot of them, aren't as big a draw for restaurants as they used to be.
The reporter with the two TVs above his table.Alex Bitter/BI
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, 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 on drinks and food instead, Jan said.
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