Long Island Hooters Chain Reboots

Big changes are coming to Hooters in Farmingdale.

The Long Island franchise owner shuttered the East Meadow restaurant along busy Hempstead Turnpike Sunday and said the Farmingdale location is due to be rebranded within the week.

"You're still going to have 62 TVs and the game on,” said Edward McCabe, an attorney for Strix Restaurant Group, which operates the restaurant along Route 110.

But he stressed the menu will have more options and transition from Southern style to Northern variety.

Strix Restaurant Group owns the franchise rights to Hooters locations on Long Island and Queens. The company admitted that the East Meadow business has been consistently losing money.

On Wednesday afternoon, pedestrians looked on at the Hempstead Turnpike eatery in confusion as they saw handwritten closed signs on the entrance doors and the large Hooters sign covered.

"The store has been in serious decline in East Meadow for several years," McCabe said. "The brand has become stale and the last two years it was losing substantial amounts of money."

Let Patch save you time. Get local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone everyday with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

Strix Restaurant Group runs Hooters in Farmingdale, Fresh Meadows and Islandia. McCabe said that changes will be made to all three locations.

"The Hooters locations in Fresh Meadows and Farmingdale will be turned into a restaurant we started called Bud's Ale House and the location in Islandia will be called 58's because it is off of Exit 58 on the Long Island Expressway," McCabe said. "The Hooters brand is just not selling on Long Island."

The Farmingdale location, with its faux palm trees and beach theme, opened in November 2009. It sits across from Farmingdale State College and near the busy corporate offices that dot Melville.

East Meadow debuted in 1995 with the Nassau Coliseum as the main draw. 

"The store was built because of the Nassau Coliseum, but now there are not as many shows there and the Islanders are not playing there anymore," he said. "That really hurt business."

Follow Farmingdale Patch on Facebook