Hooters, the U.S.-based restaurant chain known for chicken wings and skimpy wait-staff outfits for its "Hooters Girls," has filed for bankruptcy protection.

HOA Restaurant Group filed the motion for Chapter 11 protection Monday in the North Texas Bankruptcy Court in Dallas.   

The company ran into financial woes as its debts mounted, but it says it intends to stay open and resolve its troubles within months. A group of the company's original founders that owns almost a third of Hooters' U.S. locations, including about half of its biggest volume restaurants, plans to buy and operate more of the outlets, Hooters said in a news release.

"Our renowned Hooters restaurants are here to stay and we are taking action to strengthen our business to better serve our valued customers over the long term," the company said in a notice on its website.   

Hooters, based in Atlanta, was founded in Clearwater, Fla., in 1983. Trouble had been brewing for a while.   

Hooters had sponsored the No. 9 NASCAR car driven by Chase Elliott since 2017, but last year, Hendrick Motorsports ended its ties to the longtime sponsor because it was not meeting its financial commitments.

Its business strategy has faced challenges over the years, including lawsuits over its hiring of only "Hooters Girls," an all-female serving staff dressed in tight tank tops and shorts.

Last year, it agreed to pay $250,000 US and provide other relief to settle a race and colour discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against a Hooters outlet in Greensboro, N.C., after employees accused the location of deliberately failing to recall Black employees after a COVID-motivated layoff.

In 2022, the restaurant refuted claims it was shutting down and rebranding due to changing customer tastes.  

In 2019, the Hooters hotel-casino off the Las Vegas Strip was sold to an Indian hotel company and rebranded as the OYO Hotel and Casino.

In 2017, the company tried opening a restaurant that didn't feature wait staff in tight tops, as a test of a different approach to its original concept.