Hooters trying to become the "anti-Cracker Barrell" as they attempt to recover

The Plan to Make Hooters ‘Delightfully Tacky’ Again

Buyers for the bankrupt chain say now is the time for short shorts and lots of butter sauce

CHICAGO—Just a few inches separate short shorts from hot pants. But to Neil Kiefer, who is arguing in bankruptcy court that he is the man to manage all Hooters restaurants in America, that difference is everything.

Kiefer thinks he can turn the chain, known as the original “breastaurant” for its female servers in skimpy uniforms, into a place where men come for beer and wings alongside families who are there for chicken strips and curly fries at lunch.

He wants to fix up locations that are run down, update the menu that has grown too long, and make the whole chain “delightfully tacky,” as its founders put it in the 1980s. That means waitresses will wear orange shorts, not the bikini-style bottoms that some locations introduced a few years ago. Qualifications for the job include “glamorous hair styling” and “ability to maintain attractive fit & image,” according to the job posting for a Hooters Girl.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a bunch of butt cheeks hanging out,” says Kiefer, chief executive officer of the Original Hooters Founder Group, sitting at a table at one of the Hooters he already owns near O’Hare International Airport.