Hooters closes 2 Kansas City area locations, a ‘difficult decision.’ Only 2 remain

Atlanta-based restaurant chain Hooters closed two Kansas City area locations over the weekend, leaving only two in the metro.

The closed restaurants are in the Northland at 6411 N.W. Barry Road and in Independence at 19850 E. Valley View Parkway.

“Like many restaurants under pressure from current market conditions, Hooters has made the difficult decision to close a select number of underperforming stores,” the company said in a media statement Monday.

The company did not provide a list of every restaurant it was closing, but USA Today reported closings in Florida, Kentucky, Texas and Indiana on Monday.

Two local Hooters remain open: in Overland Park at 10620 Metcalf Lane and at 1712 Village West Pkwy near the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.

Hooters, which is owned by the private equity firm Nord Bay Capital, has faced increased competition in the so-called breastaurant space in recent years with the emergence of similar chains like Tilted Kilt and Twin Peaks (which has three metro-area locations). At the end of 2023, Hooters had 293 locations, down from 333 in 2018, according to the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News, while Twin Peaks grew 12% last year.

Hooters is far from the only American chain restaurant to downsize this year. Earlier this spring, Red Lobster, which has filed for bankruptcy, closed dozens of restaurants across the country, including in the Kansas City area. In March, On the Border abruptly closed three Kansas City area locations, including one just up the street from the now-closed Hooters on Barry Road.