{"id":147626,"date":"2026-02-08T00:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/147626\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T00:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:35:07","slug":"beloved-hooters-location-in-boca-raton-florida-closing-despite-tiktok-famous-staffers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/147626\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved Hooters location in Boca Raton, Florida closing despite TikTok-famous staffers"},"content":{"rendered":"

A successful Hooters<\/a> location that gained a following through its social media videos will be closing soon \u2014 which means the people behind the posts are preparing for one last\u00a0Super Bowl\u00a0Sunday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When news broke that the Hooters in Boca Raton<\/a>, Florida, was closing at the end of February because of the landlord\u2019s decision not to renew the lease, longtime customers and employees were surprised, general manager Chris Torelli told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

In a tough restaurant economy, closures can be a sign of decline. But this Hooters location built a cult following through TikTok dances, parody skits and\u00a0viral videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a healthy, successful location, and in this economy, the places that close are the opposite,\u201d Torelli said.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the Boca Raton location distinguished itself by leaning heavily into social media. What started as a simple marketing experiment, Torelli said, evolved into one of the most recognizable Hooters social media accounts in the country.<\/p>\n

The videos \u2014 often featuring\u00a0choreographed dances, playful jabs at local sports teams or scripted phone-call skits \u2014 resonated far beyond Boca Raton. Torelli said early viral success helped confirm the strategy.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the Boca Raton location distinguished itself by leaning heavily into staff-featured social media content. Hooters Boca Raton\/Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get one or two that go viral, then you start seeing the comments and the interaction with the consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the success wasn\u2019t just about algorithms or follower counts. The goal \u201chas always been to make it fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a business,\u201d Torelli said. \u201cI mean, we are a business \u2014 but\u00a0Instagram, for us, is fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of that fun came from the women who appeared in the videos. Hooters waitresses Amanda Hall and Sarah Glynn became familiar faces online, dancing, joking and often poking fun at themselves.<\/p>\n

The Hooters girls went viral on social media, with videos that often featured\u00a0choreographed dances, playful jabs at local sports teams or scripted phone-call skits. hootersbocaraton\/Instagram<\/p>\n

The social media presence helped turn the Hooters girls into \u201clocal celebrities,\u201d Torelli said, as recognition followed them outside\u00a0the restaurant.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something former employee Abigail Fuqua still experiences more than a year after leaving the Boca Raton location. She said she\u2019s still recognized from posts still circulating online.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you open that door up, and you immerse yourself into it, you just have fun,\u201d Fuqua said of participating in the videos.<\/p>\n

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The social media success has also become a reliable job recruiting resource, Torelli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve stumbled upon one of the best marketing tools to recruit future Hooters girls,\u201d he said. He noted the \u201ctremendous success [in] hiring staff\u201d who wanted to work there because of the videos.<\/p>\n

As the restaurant prepares to close its doors after 16 years, Hall and Glynn describe the workplace as more than just a job.<\/p>\n

The social media presence helped turn the Hooters girls into \u201clocal celebrities,\u201d general manager Chris Torelli said, as recognition followed them outside\u00a0the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese girls are my sisters now,\u201d Glynn said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of became more like\u00a0a home and a family,\u201d Hall added.<\/p>\n

Still, there is optimism about the future. Torelli said the \u201cplan all along\u201d was to find a new home nearby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not done yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For the employees, the future is less certain \u2014 but not without gratitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese girls are my sisters now,\u201d Hooters waitress Sarah Glynn said. Hooters Boca Raton\/Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is going to take you in different directions, but I had\u00a0a great time\u00a0while I was here,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n

Glynn joked that the end of the Boca Raton location may mark the end of an era for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be time to retire the orange shorts a little bit because I don\u2019t know how I can do any Hooters other than Boca,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Even after\u00a0the restaurant\u00a0closes, its social media presence isn\u2019t likely to fade, Torelli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe owe it to our guests and our staff and the people in the community, because we do so much with them, to continue to do this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to the property management company for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A successful Hooters location that gained a following through its social media videos will be closing soon \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,22446,687,6097,71390,12769,3709,4278],"class_list":["post-147626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hooters","tag-restaurants","tag-social-media","tag-store-closings","tag-super-bowl","tag-tiktok","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}