Hooters reopens, draws back loyal customers, staff

More than five months after a fire forced the Hooters in Joliet to shut down, the restaurant reopened Monday with patrons and workers alike happy to be back.

Joliet fire crews quickly put out the early morning fire Oct. 4, but the restaurant sustained significant smoke and water damage and closed. General manager Nicki Farrell said the damage was significant.

“We lost everything,” Farrell said.

Still, there was no question in Farrell’s mind about whether she would reopen the restaurant, even after she learned repairing the damage would take longer than she had originally thought.

Farrell and her employees kept hearing from their regular customers who wanted to know when the Hooter would open its doors again. Once while shopping at Target while wearing her Hooters jacket, she said a customer asked her, “When are you opening?”

Not only did she praise her customers’ loyalty, but also that of her employees. She said about 90% of the staff she had before the fire agreed to come back to work when the restaurant reopened.

“We’re very close,” she said of her staff and customers. “Just because we’ve been open 14 years.”

One of those loyal customers was Joliet resident Kerry Bosman, 55, who was among the first people waiting for the restaurant to reopen at 11 a.m. Monday. He said he was “very sad” when he’d heard about the fire back in October, but was excited to return.

“I’m going to enjoy, because I missed it,” he said as he walked into the restaurant. “A man’s gotta eat.”

Loyal customers such as Bosman have contributed to the Joliet location’s success.

Hooters opened its doors in Joliet in 2006 and has proven to be a popular venue compared with the company’s other locations. The Joliet eatery consistently ranks among the top 50 locations out of about 450 worldwide, said Allie Golden, the company’s Chicago-area marketing manager.

Farrell said she was excited to welcome back her regular diners.

Both Golden and Farrell also stressed their appreciation of the Joliet Fire Department, which they said did an “amazing” job responding to the fire. They said crews put out the fire in about 20 minutes.

Bosman said he, too, was happy to be back after he and his friends grabbed a table Monday. On the way in, one of the servers even gave him a hug.

“It’s very nice, clean,” Bosman said. “And I miss the girls.”

The Joliet Hooters is located at 3301 Hennepin Drive in Joliet near the Louis Joliet Mall.