Hooters CEO Wants To Rebrand to Family-Friendly

A rebrand your grandma would approve of, but your bachelor uncle might not…

Hooters has announced plans to rebrand its restaurants to make them more “family friendly.” The chain is best known for its wings — and, arguably even more so, the waitresses who have been serving them since the early ’80s.

CEO Neil Kiefer, who has been with the company since its first location opened in Clearwater, says he wants to return the brand to “a beach-themed place centered around the Hooters Girls, good food, [and being an] easy place to relax.” He told People that after the original brand sold rights in 2001, some locations drifted “further and further away from what the brand and the concept stood for.”

Kiefer and the original owners reacquired the brand’s intellectual property in fall 2025 after Hooters of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The group acquired 140 restaurants in an effort to, in Kiefer’s words, “re-Hooterize” the chain.

Along with menu changes, the original owners also want to return to the brand’s original uniform style. Kiefer said that over the years, “they had changed the uniforms of the girls and put them in almost what appeared to be a thong. And that was never the intention when this concept started.” He explained that the original servers wore dolphin running shorts, giving off more of a beachy, sporty, athletic vibe.

With changes to both the uniforms and menu, Kiefer hopes the company can make Hooters “more friendly to everybody. No one’s going to be insulted.”

Check out Hammer and Nigel’s response to the rebrand during a spirited round of “Are You Okay with This?”