It seems that another major chain might be ready to bite the dust: Bloomberg reported today that Hooters, the country’s most famous “breastaurant,” is in talks with law firm Ropes & Gray to prepare a bankruptcy filing, according to sources close to the situation. (Neither Hooters nor the law firm responded to the publication’s requests for comment.) In September of 2024, Bloomberg also reported that the chain was facing $300 million of debt and falling revenue.
In the summer of 2024, Hooters closed dozens of stores nationwide. As the company told Nation’s Restaurant News at the time, these stores were “underperforming.” Pointing to the launch of a Hooters frozen-food line in June of the same year and the company’s expansion “into new markets,” Hooters added that “this brand of 41 years remains highly resilient and relevant.”
Hooters would follow Red Lobster and TGI Friday’s in filing for bankruptcy and closing locations as America’s major chains face shifting diner preferences and spending behavior. However, given the rise of chains like Bikini Beans, Tilted Kilt, and Twin Peaks — the latter of which is growing rapidly and is now estimated to have an equity value of $1.2 billion — it doesn’t seem like Americans have lost interest in the concept of the breastaurant itself, where the focus has never really been on the quality of the food so much as the appearance of the people (women) serving it. As Vox speculated in 2018, some of Hooters’s struggles may have simply to do with the fact that the chain and its food now feel outdated compared to its newer competitors.
Hooters has attempted to go beyond its controversial image in the past. In 2017, it launched a fast-casual offshoot called Hoots that served similar food with a more family-friendly (i.e., less skimpy) approach. At the time, the company classified the offshoot as a way for Hooters to enter “more and smaller neighborhoods” since Hoots locations would be smaller. It also seemed like a response to declining sales: The number of Hooters locations dropped by more than 7 percent between 2012 and 2016.
As Greg Morabito wrote for Eater in 2019, following news of a planned Hoots expansion, “With its more casual service style, pared down menu, and less aggressive branding, Hoots seems geared at millennials who might not otherwise step foot inside Hooters.” Hoots hasn’t really taken off, however: The Hoots Wings location in Atlanta closed last summer, leaving only three locations across the country, according to the Hoots website.
With Hooters potentially headed for the same fate, all those people who go to Hooters “for the wings” may just have to hit up a Wingstop — or one of the many other chicken chains popping up these days.
