National restaurant chain Hooters has filed for bankruptcy and aims to be bought out by franchisees, including the chain’s founder.

The chain, famous for its wings and scantily clad waitresses, has closed locations in recent years and announced Monday it was pursuing a restructuring and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It hopes to be out of bankruptcy proceedings in three to four months.

Hooters will remain in operation during the process, provided that it gets $40 million of debtor-in-possession financing from some of its lenders.

Meanwhile, Hooters of America, which owns the chain, wants to sell its locations and stake in the company to two franchisees that own 14 of the chain’s top 30 locations nationwide.

One of the franchisee groups, Clearwater, Florida-based HMC Hospitality Group, was the founder of the chain in 1983. The group is looking to focus on slimming down Hooters of America’s operations.

“With over 30 years of hands-on experience across the Hooters ecosystem, we have a profound understanding of our customers. … We are committed to restoring the Hooters brand back to its roots and simplifying HOA’s operations by adopting a pure franchise model that will maximize the potential for sustainable, long-term growth,” HMC Hospitality Group CEO Neil Kiefer said in a release from Hooters.

Once the restructuring is complete, all Hooters locations will be franchisee-owned. There are 151 locations operated by Hooters of America and 154 run by franchisees, according to Reuters.

The new owners also plan to tone down the chain’s raunchiness.

“You go to some parts of the country and people say, ’Oh I could never go to Hooters, my wife would kill me.’ That’s depressing to us. We want to change that,” Mr. Kiefer told Bloomberg.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.