Hooters CEO Breaks Silence on Restaurant Closures: “The Owl Isn’t Flying Away”

For years, Hooters has been as much a part of the American roadside landscape as billboards, gas stations, and questionable life choices made after midnight. But after a wave of restaurant closures and a highly publicized bankruptcy, many fans have been wondering the same thing:

Is Hooters actually on its last wing?

According to CEO Neil Kiefer, not even close.

As Hooters locations continue disappearing from the map, including several longtime Florida restaurants, Kiefer is insisting the iconic brand is alive, well, and planning a comeback.

“The number of stores will go up and down, but the longevity of our commitment will not,” Kiefer said, brushing aside concerns that the closures signal the beginning of the end.

In other words, just because a few Hooters signs have gone dark doesn’t mean the owl is headed for extinction.

The company recently lost its final Jacksonville location, ending a 40-year run in one of Florida’s largest cities. Other longtime restaurants have also shut their doors, including a Panama City Beach location that survived more than three decades and a Boca Raton restaurant that had been serving customers for 16 years.

To many observers, it looked like another chapter in the slow decline of a once-dominant restaurant chain.

But Kiefer says there’s more to the story.

Last year, Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy, creating an opportunity for the restaurant’s original founders to step back into the picture and reclaim control of the brand they launched in Clearwater, Florida, back in 1983.

According to Kiefer, the founders saw a chance to rescue what worked, fix what didn’t, and restore the identity that made Hooters famous in the first place.

“The original founders saw an opportunity to step in and reclaim their brand, integrity, and legacy,” he explained.

Once they got back behind the wheel, they reportedly discovered that some locations needed significant attention, leading to difficult decisions about which restaurants would stay open and which would not.

Rather than doubling down on gimmicks, Kiefer says the new leadership is focusing on food quality, hospitality, and making Hooters a destination for families instead of relying solely on its reputation from decades past.

The CEO has previously argued that earlier ownership pushed the brand too heavily toward sex appeal and away from the things that originally made it successful.

Now, the goal is a return to basics: better food, stronger community connections, and a renewed focus on customer service.

And despite the closures grabbing headlines, new locations are also opening to replace some of the lost ground.

“We are concentrating our efforts on what has always made us successful: our community, our staff, our food, and our unshakeable dedication to all three,” Kiefer said.

So while some Hooters restaurants may have served their final basket of wings, company leadership insists the brand itself isn’t headed for the fryer anytime soon.

The restaurant chain may look different in the years ahead, but if Kiefer is right, reports of Hooters’ demise have been greatly exaggerated.