Hooters

This article is about the two restaurant chains collectively using the shared Hooters brand. For other uses, see Hooters (disambiguation).

Hooters, Inc
Company typePrivate
IndustryFood service
FoundedOctober 4, 1983; 41 years ago (1983-10-04)
Clearwater, Florida, U.S.
FoundersLynn D. Stewart
Gil DiGiannantonio
Ed Droste
Billy Ranieri
Ken Wimmer
Dennis Johnson
HeadquartersAtlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Number of locations
430+
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsBurgers, chicken wings, seafood, Tex-Mex, full bar[1]
RevenueIncrease US$605 million (2021[2])
OwnerNord Bay Capital
TriArtisan Capital Advisor
Number of employees
15,000 (2021[2])
Websitehooters.com

Hooters is the registered trademark[3] used by two American restaurant chains: Hooters, Inc., based in Clearwater, Florida, and Hooters of America, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia, and owned by the private investment firm Nord Bay Capital (with TriArtisan Capital Advisor as its advisor).[4] The Hooters name is a double entendre referring to both a North American slang term for women's breasts and the logo (a bird known for its "hooting" calls: the owl).[5]

The waiting staff at Hooters restaurants are primarily young women, usually referred to simply as "Hooters Girls", whose revealing outfits and sex appeal are played up and are a primary component of the company's image. The company employs men and women as cooks, hosts (at some franchises), busboys, and managers.[6] The menu includes hamburgers and other sandwiches, steaks, seafood entrees, appetizers, and the restaurant's specialty, chicken wings. Almost all Hooters restaurants hold alcoholic beverage licenses to sell beer and wine, and where local permits allow, a full liquor bar. Hooters T-shirts, sweatshirts, and various souvenirs and curios are also sold.

As of 2016, there were more than 430 Hooters locations and franchises around the world and Hooters of America LLC. owns 160 units. In 2012, there were Hooters locations in 44 US states, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, and 28 other countries.[7] Hooters also had an airline, Hooters Air, with a normal flight crew and flight attendants and scantily clad "Hooters Girls" on every flight.[8]

  1. ^ "Hooters Menu". hooters.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Hooters". Restaurant Business Online. Archived from the original on May 18, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  3. ^ "Word Mark: Hooters". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  4. ^ Klein, Danny (July 2019). "Hooters Sold to Nord Bay Capital, Plans Fast Casual Expansion". FSR magazine. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  5. ^ "Hooters - The Original - The Beginning". Originalhooters.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  6. ^ Kasper, Barbara; Moore, Barbara. "WAVE's Review of Hooters". Rochester NY NOW. Archived from the original on October 2, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2010. Originally published as "Restaurant puts workers on display", Democrat and Chronicle, April 12, 1995.
  7. ^ "Hooters locations". Hooters.know-where.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  8. ^ "HootersAir". April 21, 2006. Archived from the original on April 21, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2017.