Hooters: Brand Damaged By Filthy, Abandoned Restaurants

Atlanta, GA -- Hooters of America, based in Vinings, is suing a company that operated 12 of the company's "breastaurants" on the East Coast, charging that Hoot Owl Restaurants LLC operated at least one of those locations in filthy conditions.

Hooters says its brand has been damaged as a result, and that customers were turned off by the restaurant's deplorable conditions.

Hoot Owl Restaurants operated restaurants under franchise agreements, according to the Providence Journal, in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Hooters says the franchises violated its contract with the parent company when it abandoned a restaurant in Warwick, RI, and Rehoboth Beach, DE.

The lawsuit was filed Monday in Atlanta in the U.S. District Court.

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"The Warwick restaurant was in such deplorable condition in July 2014 that Hoot Owl 'voluntarily' closed the restaurant in order to perform necessary repairs and maintenance following a health department inspection," the lawsuit states.

Inspectors found mouse droppings in the bar, a walk-in refrigerator and on a shelf where "to-go" containers were , according to a Rhode Island Department of Health report.

The same restaurant was damaged by a March 2015 storm and never reopened.

Hooters of America has terminated Hoot Owl's franchise rights for three other Philadelphia-area stores.