Hooters’ long-running Clarke Quay restaurant—its first and last remaining outlet in Singapore—will close on Jan. 31, 2026, ending a three-decade run on the Singapore River that began in the mid-1990s. [1]
For locals, it’s a nostalgia-soaked footnote in the city’s ever-changing nightlife and dining map. For the brand globally, it lands in the middle of a high-stakes reset: in the U.S., Hooters has been navigating bankruptcy, a founder-backed takeover, store closures, and a back-to-basics campaign that the company’s new leadership has framed as a return to the chain’s original identity—right down to the recipe in its signature wing sauce. [2]
Below is what’s happening in Singapore, what Hooters leadership says it’s changing in the U.S., and why a Florida car meet at a Naples Hooters in January is a small but telling signal of how the brand hopes to stay relevant.
Clarke Quay Hooters is closing after 30 years—here’s why
According to Mothership, the Clarke Quay location will close because of a combination of operational strain and changing realities in the labor market: ongoing manpower shortages and consistently slow sales, with the owner also choosing to retire after what the managing director described as a “long run.” [3]
Selena Chua, managing director of the restaurant, told Mothership the outlet has raised salaries over the years to keep up with cost-of-living pressures while trying to keep menu prices affordable—an increasingly difficult balancing act that squeezed the restaurant’s bottom line. [4]
A few more details help explain why the closure hits differently than the typical restaurant shutdown:
- It marks Hooters’ exit from Singapore. [5]
- The Clarke Quay outlet opened in 1996 and was described as the first international franchise outside North America and the first outlet in Asia. [6]
- The restaurant currently employs 10 kitchen/floor staff and five office staff, with Chua also helping in the kitchen. [7]
- There are plans for a smaller-scale bistro that will not be part of the Hooters brand, and most staff are expected to move over. [8]
If you zoom out, the Clarke Quay closure also fits into a broader picture of restaurant churn in Singapore. In an earlier look at the city-state’s dining scene, Reuters cited government data showing F&B closures averaging 307 per month in 2025 (at the time of reporting), up from 254 per month in 2024, as operators grappled with high costs and softer spending. [9]
Singapore’s closure story mirrors a global restaurant squeeze
It’s tempting to treat the Singapore closure as a standalone “end of an era” moment. But the economic pressures Chua described—labor tightness, costs rising faster than consumers’ willingness to pay—are familiar well beyond Singapore.
In the U.S., the National Restaurant Association has repeatedly emphasized how thin restaurant margins are and how quickly cost increases can destabilize even established operators. The group says that over the last five years, food and labor costs for the average restaurant have each risen 35%, while many operators typically net only 3%–5% pre-tax profit margins—leaving little room for error when traffic softens. [10]
On the labor side, the association also pointed to wage pressure: among full-service respondents in its Restaurant Operations Data Abstract, median labor costs were 36.5% of sales in 2024, higher than historic comparisons. [11]
That kind of math—costs up, margins tight, consumers cautious—helps connect why a legacy American chain can be trying to “re-found” itself at the same time a long-running international outpost decides it can’t keep stretching.
Hooters’ U.S. turnaround: bankruptcy, closures, and a founder-backed reset
While Singapore’s Clarke Quay closure is being attributed primarily to local operating realities, Hooters’ U.S. corporate story has been unusually turbulent—and well documented.
The bankruptcy filing and founder-led buyout plan
On March 31, 2025, Reuters reported that Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy in Texas, aiming to address $376 million in debt by selling company-owned restaurants to a franchise group backed by the company’s founders. [12]
Reuters also reported that at the time, Hooters directly owned and operated 151 locations, with another 154 run by franchisees, and that the company expected to move through the process within months, supported by $35 million in financing. [13]
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