Hooters CEO Neil Kiefer has come forward with new details about the restaurant chain’s planned rebrand, insisting the company is not trying to become family-friendly because, in his view, it already was.
The comments were made after Hooters, a chain long known for its “Hooters Girls” waitresses serving food in revealing uniforms, began working to reclaim what Kiefer described as its original identity as a beach-themed neighborhood restaurant.
Highlights
- Hooters CEO Neil Kiefer said the chain is trying to reclaim what he described as its original beach-themed neighborhood identity.
- Kiefer blamed later franchisees and private equity ownership for pushing the uniforms and brand image into more erotic territory.
- The move comes after Hooters of America declared bankruptcy in 2025, allowing Kiefer to regain control.
On May 22, an official company statement referred to it as the establishment’s “true identity.”
The move has been met with brutal reactions from citizens who see the attempt to repackage Hooters as a family-friendly dining spot as disingenuous.
“Family friendly Hooters sounds like an oxymoron,” a critic wrote.
Hooters has declared its intention to pivot toward a more family-friendly image after years of being defined by scantily clad waitresses
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During an interview on May 21, the 74-year-old CEO told People Magazine that Hooters was always intended to be a casual, beach-themed restaurant centered on food, atmosphere, and its servers rather than an aggressively erotic concept.
He defined the chain as “a beach-themed place centered around the Hooters Girls, good food, [and being an] easy place to relax.”
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“It’s a neighborhood place that many families frequent, and singles and couples,” he said.
Kiefer’s connection to Hooters goes back to the chain’s beginning. He started with the company in 1983 as its attorney, then took over as CEO in 1992.
But the years that followed are now part of what he appears to view as the brand’s decline. According to Kiefer, Hooters began to lose control of its original identity after the founding owners sold the chain’s intellectual property and contractual rights in 2001.
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Private equity firms later took over certain locations under Hooters of America, a period Kiefer described with regret as he acknowledged how far the company had drifted from the restaurant he believed they had created.
The chain, he said, moved “further and further away from what the brand and the concept stood for.” That shift helped shape the way Hooters is perceived today and established a reputation the company is now trying to repair.
Surprisingly, Kiefer also stated that the issues with the brand went beyond the presentation of the servers, but also impacted the quality of the food itself.
“They didn’t use the appropriate sauce,” Kiefer said. “About 70% of our food products have that sauce on it.”
Kiefer explained that the original concept for the servers was a “sporty, athletic look” for the beach
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Circling back to the servers, the CEO explained how franchisees had moved away from the original idea behind their uniforms.
“The second thing was they had changed the uniforms of the girls and put them in almost what appeared to be a thong,” he said. “And that was never the intention when this concept started.”
Kiefer said the original servers in the early 1980s wore dolphin running shorts, which he described as a sporty beachwear look that fit the restaurant’s theme because they were often used at the time as swimsuit cover-ups.
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“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 s**ualized version of that,” he said.
“That chased away a lot of customers,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with a pair of shorts if fitted properly.”
“But I think in a dining place, there is something wrong [if] they’re in a thong type of uniform.”
“Just trying to make it more friendly to everybody. No one’s going to be insulted,” he added.
Hooters of America declared bankruptcy in 2025, allowing Kiefer to reacquire power
The push comes after Hooters of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, allowing Kiefer and the original owners to reacquire the brand’s intellectual property in fall 2025.
At the time, the New York Times reported that the group acquired around 140 locations to “re-Hooterize.”
“It wasn’t so much a monetary thing,” Kiefer said of the acquisition.
“It was more like, wait a minute, we created this brand. We hate to see what they’ve done to it. We need to try to improve it.”
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The chain’s attempt to lean into a family-friendly image also comes after years of legal and financial problems.
For instance, in 1997, Hooters settled a 1997 case with a group of men who alleged they were denied jobs because of their gender. Similarly, in 2011, the National Organization for Women brought an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking to ban minors from California Hooters locations.
The company was also hit by broader financial struggles during the 2008 recession and the pandemic.
Despite the skepticism surrounding the move, the CEO expressed confidence in the rebranding effort
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Currently, Hooters appears to be navigating an uncomfortable middle ground: trying to serve customers looking for a family-friendly experience, while still catering to those who come in specifically for the more erotic side of the brand.
Last week, for instance, at one Hooters location in East Brunswick, New Jersey, servers in the chain’s signature uniforms were seen serving children after a dance performance, while a middle school baseball team ate at a table featuring Hooters swimsuit calendar photos.
The same location reportedly offered a “Kids Eat Free” Saturday promotion, while also occasionally hosting “bikini nights” with servers working in swimsuits.
When asked directly whether he was trying to make Hooters more family-friendly, Kiefer rejected the premise.
“We have been that way always,” he told People.
“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,” he insisted.
Image credits: hooters/Instagram
Kiefer also acknowledged the obvious meaning behind the name, referring to the Steve Martin joke about women’s breasts that inspired the restaurant’s branding.
“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 overs**ualized too much in the last 15, 20 years.”
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