Hooters Has A Hot Time Celebrating 40th Anniversary

CLEARWATER, FL — On Friday, Hooters held an exclusive party 40th anniversary celebration with an unveiling of a painting by famed international artist Fabian Perez at Hooters of Clearwater Beach.

"Showtime" was commissioned as a tribute to the iconic Hooters Girls who have become recognized worldwide for decades and now has more than 400,000 alumni.

On hand were the stars of the just-released 2024 Hooters Calendar including the model on the cover wrap, Eden Davis from Abilene, Texas; 2023 Miss Hooters International and 2024 Hooters Calendar cover girl, Emily Johnson from Jacksonville; and several Tampa Bay area Hooters Girls including “Miss May” Iliana Rodriguez, who works at the North Tampa Hooters restaurant. The 2024 Hooters Calendar is now available at all Hooters locations.

The unveiling and celebration included a toast with the "cracking” of a Louis XIII Cask shared with all.

Hooters on Clearwater Beach is directly across from the Surfside Beach where key brand elements of the restaurant concept were contemplated and contrived by the founders. The Louis XIII was a gift to one of the founders, Ed Droste, and Hooters Calendar Girl Marsha Posey, who were married on that beach in 2006.

Related:

• Hooters Prepares For 40th Anniversary Celebration With 83-Cent Wings
• Hooters Prepares For 40th Anniversary Concert In Clearwater

Hooters was created and fittingly incorporated on April Fool’s Day in 1983 by six businessmen: L.D. Stewart, Gil DiGiannantonio, “Uncle Billy” Ranieri, Ed Droste, Dennis Johnson and Ken Wimmer.

Soon after, the doors to the first Hooters restaurant opened on Oct. 4 at 2800 Gulf-To-Bay Blvd. in Clearwater.

The eatery with a beach theme was one of the first to introduce Buffalo-style chicken wings nationwide and, with the help of the famous Hooters Girls, to foreign countries around the world.

After 40 years, the original Hooters founders have stayed intact and continue to grow the concept in their territories retained in the Tampa Bay area and Chicago.

HMC Hospitality Group owns and operates 22 Hooters restaurants in Tampa Bay and Chicago and 3 Hoots locations in Chicago.