May 26, 2026

Hooters Restaurant Changing Server’s Uniform and Becoming More “Family Friendly”

By J. Thomas Wade
Blue RAM Media/Gulf Coast News

May 26, 2026

MOBILE, AL. Skimpy clothes are out and family-friendly is in, according to the CEO of Hooters.

Neil Kiefer recently told People’s Magazine Hooters has always been a “neighborhood place” but wants to make it “more friendly to everybody.”

The first Hooters restaurant opened its doors on October 4, 1983 in Clearwater, Florida. The company was originally incorporated a few months prior on April Fool’s Day, 1983, as the founders—six businessmen with no prior restaurant experience—thought the business venture might fail.

They decided to hire young, attractive women and dress them in bikini tops and shorts, hoping to attract the younger crowd.

Kiefer described Hooters as presently “a beach-themed place centered around the Hooters Girls, good food, and being an easy place to relax. It’s a neighborhood place that many families frequent, and singles and couples,” he said.

But now, things are about to change in a big way. Literally. For one, the dress of their female staff is about to become more conservative with hopes of attracting a different demographic.

Kiefer, 74, started at Hooters in its inception in 1983 as the chain’s attorney. He took over as CEO in 1992.

After the original owners sold the chain’s intellectual property and contractual rights in 2001, Kiefer said private equity firms took over certain locations as Hooters of America, allowing the chain to deviate “further and further away from what the brand and the concept stood for.”

The CEO said the company is addressing its uniform standards in a bid to be more broadly appealing to customers.

“There’s nothing wrong with a pair of shorts if fitted properly,” Kiefer said. “But I think in a dining place, there is something wrong if they’re in a thong type of uniform.”

Kiefer also said the chain’s name was a “double entendere, it was acceptable humor back then.”

Make no mistake, the servers won’t be wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
The chain is returning to its 1980s roots by outfitting servers in more modest, athletic attire, specifically standard fitted white T-shirts and longer, bright orange jogging shorts.

The new uniforms won’t embarrass anyone and it’ll still be Hooters, without the cleavage.