Hooters Says It Was Never Really About The Hooters

The CEO of Hooters says the chain doesn’t want to be known for just big hooters anymore.

Neil Kiefer, who has been involved with Hooters since its founding in 1983 and became CEO in 1992, insists the restaurant has always been a family-friendly destination despite its famously scantily clad waitstaff.

“It’s a neighborhood place that many families frequent, and singles and couples,” Kiefer told People after The New York Times published a recent report on the company’s attempt to reinvent itself.  

Hooters was founded by six Florida businessmen who, according to the company’s website, “got together to open a place they couldn’t get kicked out of.” During its heyday, there were more than 420 locations in 42 states and 29 countries, and even a Hooters airline, as the Times reported.

Things went downhill during the 2008 recession, the COVID pandemic, and amid various lawsuits. Hooters of America closed several locations and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2025.

But Kiefer is not ready to give up on the original concept just yet. While the CEO blames the takeover of private equity on the restaurant’s overly sexualized image, the NYT noted that scantily clad “Hooters Girls” were part of the gimmick from the start. Now, Kiefer is leaning into a different aesthetic.

“We’re getting back to what makes us a beach-themed restaurant as opposed to a girlie bar,” Kiefer told the NYT, blaming the owners of certain locations for taking the sexy image too far.

“It was a sporty athletic look at the time, and I think in the last 10 or 15 years, a lot of the country has seen a more sexualized version of that,” he added. “That chased away a lot of customers.”

“That was never the intention when this concept started,” the CEO insisted.

When asked whether the company is trying to become more family-friendly, Kiefer told People the restaurant has “been that way always.”

“If you’ve ever been to a Hooters in Chicago or in Tampa Bay or in South Florida, you’re going to see tons of families, tons of children,” he said. “It’s [a] tongue-in-cheek type of beach theme restaurant.”

“I understand the word hooters, the Steve Martin joke,” he said. “It was a double entendre. It was acceptable humor back then, and it’s coming back to be acceptable humor, but it was oversexualized too much in the last 15, 20 years.”

The restaurant was named after a Steve Martin comedy routine during which he insisted that the real name for breasts should be “hooters.” 

Kiefer claims family-friendly, beach-themed locations in Florida and Chicago are doing well, though he also admits it will take time to “win customers back” after decades of a scandalous reputation. 

“We’re having success, but it’s a long road to climb out of it,” he told People.