Fox News Digital spoke to the CEO of Hooters Inc., which is buying back the restaurant chain to make it “more acceptable to mainstream society.” He spoke of
Hooters is going for an upgrade.
After the recent announcement that Hooters of America has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of an effort to enable a founder-led buyout and restructuring of the popular restaurant chain, the CEO of one of the two purchasing franchisee groups told Fox News Digital of plans to make Hooters “more acceptable to mainstream society.”
Neil Kiefer is CEO of Hooters Inc., the Clearwater, Florida-based company that founded the Hooters concept in 1983. Hooters Inc. owns and operates 22 Hooters restaurants in Florida and Illinois, with two more locations slated to open in Florida later this year.
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Along with another franchisee, the Hooters buyer group controls over 30% of the domestic locations, including 14 of the 30 highest-volume restaurants, said a March 31 news release about the restructuring plan.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, Kiefer shared how he saw Hooters of America-run restaurants straying from the original founders’ vision and making changes that were inconsistent with the brand — including uniform modifications and differing standards from location to location. (See the video at the top of this article.)
“For over two years, we’ve been complaining,” Kiefer said about the iconic orange shorts worn by servers. “[But] we only had standing to complain. We couldn’t rule how the [restaurants] were being run.”
Kiefer said the shorts, as conceived in the 1980s, were “more of an athletic look.”
“Somewhere along the line,” Kiefer said, Hooters of America “went to the more revealing” shorts, “which to us does not jibe with a neighborhood restaurant that some families choose to frequent.”
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“You don’t want to have a butt cheek in your plate,” he added. “The [shorts are] supposed to be sized to fit appropriately. They’re supposed to be athletic, not so much sexual.”
Alli Lamb, a 21-year-old Hooters waitress and bartender at the Boca Raton, Florida, location, said the uniform hasn’t been an issue for her since she started working there.
“Everything’s covered,” Lamb told Fox News Digital. “Nothing’s out that doesn’t need to be out.”
Kiefer, for his part, said the over-sexualization of Hooters, which has been called the original “breastaurant,” tarnished the brand’s image and created a perception problem.
“I think that’s one of the mistakes the people at Hooters of America made going down that route,” he said.
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That is not an issue, however, at the Boca Raton restaurant, which is independently owned and operated by the original franchisee of Hooters.
Chris Torelli, managing partner of the Boca Raton location and director of merchandising for Hooters restaurants in South Florida, told Fox News Digital the bankruptcy announcement initially led to some worried messages from customers.
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“It gave us the opportunity to explain that we’re healthy,” Torelli said. “We are a strong franchise, and all the other franchise communities are also healthy and strong. It just lays out what we need to do moving forward to keep the brand successful.”
That means catering to more than just an 18- to 50-year-old male clientele.
“We want the kids. We want the families. We want the over-60 crowd. We want the college students. We want them all,” Torelli said. “The best way to do that is to appeal to all those different demographics.”
Among the ways to revitalize the brand: Create universal standards for servers and hospitality staff, standardize the menu offerings and do away with weekly bikini nights, Kiefer said.
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“You don’t want to walk in after a little league game with your team and have a bikini contest in the store,” he said.
Also, Hooters will “get the original sauce in all the stores,” Kiefer said.
The Hooters refresh could take up to two years, he pointed out.
But the popular Hooters swimsuit calendar and annual Miss Hooters International Pageant will be sticking around.
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“That will remain,” Kiefer said. “We may not have it this year … [But] there’s nothing wrong with beautiful women.”
Lamb, who is preparing to graduate from Florida Atlantic University, appears on the back cover of this year’s swimsuit calendar. She called the photo shoot in the Bahamas “a great experience.”
As Hooters of America stays focused on returning the brand to its founders, the company is “doubling down on everything that made Hooters legendary in the first place: fun, craveworthy food, unforgettable service and a guest-obsessed experience you can’t get anywhere else,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“We are excited to welcome everyone to the next era of Hooters.”
“I’m here to serve your food and serve your beer,” Lamb said. “If you think any other sort of way, then this isn’t the place for you.”
