Hooters’ hopes for heating up Boston’s restaurant scene appear to be slipping away, as the sexy burger joint’s home office looks to pull out of the Hub market.
Hooters of America, the chain’s corporate parent, has gone to court to strip the company that owns several local Hooters of its right to operate.
The legal move comes as the local Hooters franchise owner, Concord-based New England Wings, is operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after an expansion into upstate New York backfired.
Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing at Hooters of America, said nonpayment of royalties by the local franchise owner, as well as some unspecified “non-monetary� issues, are behind the parent company’s legal salvo.“If we prevail, they would have to stop,� McNeil said of the local Hooters franchise operator. “It is possible those restaurants will go dark.�
The Atlanta-based chain, known for its Hooters waitresses in tight shorts and tank tops, pushed into the Boston area in recent years. Hooters operates near the TD Banknorth Garden and off Route 1 in Saugus, among other locales.
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