Hooters Closes Last Jacksonville Restaurant Amid Bankruptcy Restructuring

Hooters has shuttered its final restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida. This closure marks another departure for the chain amidst ongoing cuts following its bankruptcy restructuring.

The San Jose Boulevard location, which sustained operations in Jacksonville for forty years, has closed permanently. This site opened in 1986 and was the last Hooters in the Jacksonville area.

The closure means Hooters no longer has a presence in northeast Florida, impacting the chain’s footprint in its home state. Currently, the northernmost Hooters on the Atlantic coast of Florida is in Daytona Beach, according to the company’s online restaurant locator.

Jacksonville isn’t the sole location in Florida to close recently. The Hooters at Panama City Beach ended its three-decade tenure in September, as confirmed by its Facebook announcement. Pensacola Beach now holds the last outpost in the Florida Panhandle.

Additionally, a Hooters in Hickory, North Carolina, closed in late September after many years of service, as reported by the U.S. Sun. Meanwhile, the Boca Raton location, which had gained a substantial social media following, shut down in February when a lease renewal fell through.

These disperse closures follow major restructuring efforts by Hooters. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2025 due to financial struggles and evolving consumer preferences. The Clearwater, Florida-based Hooters Inc., creators of the original Hooters concept in 1983, together with another franchise group, undertook efforts to streamline operations. Dozens of restaurants across various states have closed since then.

In June 2025, Hooters announced the planned closure of certain restaurants, with their decisions motivated by necessary business adjustments. The Hooters CEO, Neil Kiefer, shared that the brand aims to focus more on food and family-oriented hospitality, moving away from perceptions of being solely a “little boys’ club.” Individual locations continue to close, including the Fayetteville restaurant in North Carolina and the Mall of America location in Minnesota, which both shut their doors in 2026.

Despite these challenges, Hooters is opening new locations. A new restaurant launched in The Villages, Florida, in July 2025, becoming the first since the bankruptcy. One more location near Tampa in Lutz is underway, as stated on the Hooters website.