Hooters shutters dozens of restaurants after bankruptcy filing as industry suffers

Hooters has closed dozens of restaurants nationwide just a few months after filing for bankruptcy as a slump in consumer sentiment continues to hit casual dining chains hard.

Around 30 locations were shuttered across Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, according to local news outlets. 

“After careful consideration of what is needed to best position our company for the future, Hooters made the difficult decision to close certain Company-owned locations,” with closures effective Wednesday, a Hooters spokesperson told The Post.

CNN earlier reported the closures. 

The dining chain, best known for its scantily-clad, all-female staff, filed for bankruptcy in March to address $376 million in debt. 

At the time, it boasted that its restaurants “are here to stay” and announced plans to sell all 150 locations to a franchise group backed by the chain’s founders.

Earlier in the year, Hooters had revealed a “re-Hooterization” effort aimed at creating a more family-friendly image for the chain and improving service times and ingredients.

The closures are not a complete surprise, as the chain said it was evaluating its retail footprint during the bankruptcy process.

Hooters is just one of many fast-casual dining chains to suffer over the past few years as food prices remain stubbornly high and consumer sentiment slumps, prodding customers to tighten their purse-strings and cook at home more.

Last week, Bahama Breeze abruptly closed more than one-third of its locations, or 15 stores, including its sole restaurant on Long Island.

The Caribbean-inspired dining chain is owned by Darden Restaurants, which also runs Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse.

TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy in November and closed a whopping 100 locations last year.

Red Lobster, which struggled to recover from its all-you-can-eat shrimp deal, shuttered at least 50 locations and filed for bankruptcy last May. It hired a new chief executive that summer.

Italian restaurant chain Buca di Beppo also closed about 20 locations and filed for bankruptcy in 2024.

It was a rough year across the industry. Sales ticked up just 3% across the 500 largest restaurant chains in the US – the slowest rate in a decade aside from the pandemic, according to Technomic’s Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report.

More than half of those chains saw their sales fail to keep pace with the 4% food service inflation rate, according to the report.