Hooters declares bankruptcy.
I mean, if you’re going to make a place called ‘Hooters’ “family friendly”, why not just rebrand to a whole different name that isn’t a slang term that only ten year old boys use?
But what do I know? I’ve never actually been inside a Hooters.
Once. With a gay male friend. I thought we were just having campy fun, but maybe it was something more:
I’ve never been in one, either.
I understand the concept and what it was – but it sounds like it may be time to just throw in the towel.
You can’t “un-ring the bell”; it will always have that reputation, no matter what the uniform is or how you greet the patrons.
I really like their Texas patty melt.
So Hooters will no longer be a “breastaurant”? What is this world coming to?
Could go with “Shooters” and make it a gun themed family place. Oh right…someone tried that. Never mind…
p.s. nice headlines use of sag
That was a really interesting article. It made me think of Fortune Feemster, a lesbian comedian who also had a certain relationship with the place:
Definitely NSFW clip below:
Pivot to casual Italian, decorate it with old Vespas and call it “Scooters!”
Great story. Thanks for the link.
They’d probably have better luck going the other direction and becoming a “gentlemen’s club”. Forty-plus years is a pretty good run for a chain that effectively eliminated half of the population base in their target demographic as a business model.
I have been twice. Once on the Upper West Side with a classmate from France, in my 20s, in 1998. He got a kick out of it. Observing Americans through a French lens, I guess.
Once in Interlaken in Switzerland, meeting a fellow skier inside. He would have been in his mid 50s, and I was a bit snotty about the idea of choosing to go inside a Hooters while in Austria, when there were local bars and coffee shops.
Mind-blowing that Interlaken had a Hooters in 2004.
It’s still in business.
So not just important to the gay boys!
They already have a family friendly concept called “Hoots Wings” which has been around since 2017, but looks like there are currently just 3 locations (2 in Chicago area and 1 in California).
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What about a pivot to a whole different kind of sexy by calling it “Cooter’s”
I remember seeing something about this. I thought it was a “virtual restaurant” where a restaurant stayed afloat through the pandemic by creating a different ‘delivery only’ place under a different name.
They apparently have a few different ones they operate.
Amazingly, Berlin had a Hooters for TEN years (2006-2016) 
I think my PIC and I went to the local one once, well over 20 years ago — for the wings, of course! It subsequently became an “Irish” pub (quotations on purpose), then a high-rise.
I lived just a few miles from the original Hooters close to Tampa Stadium so I was eating there before it was a thing. (We regularly stopped at the 2nd location in Clearwater on our way home from the beach)
It’s. Just. A. Restaurant.
Big deal. Pretty girls in a tight teeshirt and short shorts (in the late 80s and early 90s we were all wearing some variation on that in college). They wore dance tights (not nylons) under their shorts, so no, there wasnt anything hanging out. I gave serious thought to applying, but i already had a 9 to 5.
I had lots of girl friends who worked there…and they made freaking bank (more than my 9 to 5 with my grey suit and dopey little bow at my neck*). None of them were strippers or prostitutes…the standards for dress were high, and there was a strict No Touch tolerance for customers.
The food was good and cheap (though not the best wings) and the game you wanted to watch was always on one of the tvs.
Now? Its just another beige concept restaurant. Food is beige, prices are high, and the old wink is long gone.
(And that bow at the neck of my button up blouse didn’t stop the occasional harassment at work…)
Hardly.
Among single women it was a baited field on a Sunday afternoon.
I had half a closet filled with those godawful blouses . . .and the suits to match. Used to wear sneaks to commute, so I had a file cabinet drawer full of the appropriately matching pumps. Those were the days?
I still have some of those bows in a drawer.
