- Whatever brings a community together, we suppose.
Ah, Hooters. The only place where you can go to get served so-so Buffalo wings by scantily-clad waitresses.
Well, probably not. Still, the restaurant chain is an American icon.
Perhaps it’s that iconic status that prompted a West Virginia neighborhood to bid farewell to their local Hooters in a solemn ceremony.
The Hooters location in Charleston’s Kanawha City neighborhood was recently demolished. A couple of days before the bulldozers showed up, hundreds of people gathered to hold a candlelight vigil for their favorite breastaurant.
After all, this wasn’t just about Kanawha City. This was also the last remaining Hooters location in all of West Virginia.
At the tearful event, locals and former employees of the restaurants shared stories of their favorite Hooters-brand memories. Even the Hooters corporation participated by sending in calendars for people to remember the restaurant by.
The event wasn’t all about the hoots, though. The organizers also used it as an opportunity to help raise funds for a sick child.
That’s kind of heartwarming.
Doom Comes to Hooters
The Kanawha City Hooters location stood proudly for many years in the 5600 block of MacCorkle Avenue, near the Kanawha River that flows through the town. It had everything you’d expect from a Hooters (that’s kind of how franchises work) with chicken wings, burgers, beer, and — of course — the legendary waitresses.
And then came the pandemic. Just like many other restaurants across America, the Kanawha City Hooters just couldn’t weather the lack of customers and it closed in March 2020.
So did all other Hooters locations in West Virginia. As time passed, all of them were shuttered for good.
All but the one in Kanawha City.
Although its door stayed shut, eventually this restaurant became the last remaining location bearing the Hooters owl logo in West Virginia. There were hopes that the joint would eventually reopen and become something of a pilgrimage location.
Those hopes were dashed in early 2024. Almost four years after it closed, there was an announcement that the restaurant would be demolished on February 26 to make space for a Sheetz gas station.
‘A Lot of Memories’
When the news of Kanawha City Hooters’ demolition reached Leo Browning and his friends, they figured they’d pay a small tribute to the restaurant. As a joke, they created a Facebook event announcing a candlelight vigil at the restaurant.
Well, it may have started out as a joke, but people took it seriously. As more and more participants started signing up, the group of friends decided they had no option but to make it happen.
And so, on February 23, hundreds of people descended upon the Hooters location. Many of them held candles fitting a vigil and equally many shed tears thinking about the restaurant.
“I started out coming in to get a job and it became so much more because I met so many life-long friends and my co-workers,” ex-Hooters employee Danielle Hughart told WCHS.
Noah Collins, a previous customer from nearby Rand, said he had plenty of good times at the Hooters.
“It’s a lot of memories going down with that building,” he said.
Among the crowd, the organizers handed out calendars sent in by the Hooters corporation. Let’s face it, they had to do something — they’ve certainly not seen something like this before.
Yet, it wasn’t all about tight booty shorts and tanktops. The vigil also raised money to help a young girl get urgent medical treatment.
“One of our close friend’s daughters, she was just diagnosed with a very, very rare disease and it’s very serious. If she doesn’t get help then she’s not going to be with us much longer,” explained Browning.
In fact, that was the primary purpose of the event. Browning and his friends had been planning a fundraiser anyway, and the Hooters demolition date was just a lucky coincidence.
Nonetheless, the gathered crowd seemed all in as they chanted, “Long live Hooters!”
‘Here to Stay’
However, Hooters may not have long to live. The closure and demolition of the Kanawha City location is just one example of the ongoing trend for the restaurant chain.
Case in point, at the turn of the 2010s, Hooters boasted 430 locations. As of February 2024, there are around 300.
So, what’s killing Hooters?
A bunch of things. Like in Kanawha City, the pandemic caused many locations to close or hit their finances hard.
Hooters is facing stiff competition from other similar chains, such as Twin Peaks. The company has also gone through a slew of leadership changes and blown millions upon millions of dollars on harebrained side ventures, like its own Las Vegas casino and airline.
Yes, Hooters had an airline. It survived for three years and left the company $40 million in the negative.
Finally, it seems people just don’t want to go to Hooters anymore. Fewer and fewer people had patronized the chain’s restaurants even long before COVID-19.
The dwindling number of customers gave rise to rumors in late 2022 that Hooters planned to rebrand and ditch its skimpy concept. Those rumors, however, were false.
“There is no validity to this story,” Hooters spokesperson Stephen Brown told the Associated Press. “Our concept is here to stay.”
So they say. But that concept sure wasn’t meant to stay in Kanawha City.
On the morning of February 26, demolition crews showed up at the doomed restaurant. Two hours later, West Virginia’s last Hooters was gone.