A fitting send-off.
The state of West Virginia gathered to mourn the loss of their last Hooters last week, which is being demolished after closing in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The Kanawha City location, located in the Mountain State’s capital city of Charleston, was a staple for many who lived in the area, so it was only fitting that a candlelight vigil was organized to give the beloved Hooters a proper farewell.
A Facebook event advertising the memorial service described the impact that Hooters and its chicken wings had on the community:
“Its Finally official. We have all in one way shape or form been holding on to pure hope that someone would purchase the closed building down that once was the almighty Hooters and reopen it. That seems to not be the case. The building will begin being demoed on Feb 26th. 2024.
With this being said, lets all gather in remembrance of the amazing power that was brought to us all by Hooters with a Candle Light Visual at the Kanawha City Location. Bring your candles and signs and lets let Hooters and the city know we will miss it tremendously. We will have Chicken wings with the traditional Hooters sauce on site and a limited amount of the GOAT SANDWICH “The Strip Cheese”.
Please share and be there, “Every Hour is Happy Hour at H00ters””
Over 300 people RSVP’d to attend the vigil. So while it may have started out as a joke, after the event went viral and began getting attention all around the world, the community rallied to pay its final respects to the once-great establishment.
According to WCHS, hundreds showed up from as far away as South Carolina to attend, while several former employees reunited to share memories of their time slinging beer and chicken wings:
“I started out as just coming in to get a job and it became so much more because I met so many lifelong friends and my coworkers.”
And organizer Leo Browning spoke on what the restaurant meant to the community:
“This building right here was a legitimate iconic figure to the Kanawha Valley.”
The Hooters corporate office even got word of the vigil and overnighted a box of calendars to give away to attendees (which is nice, but they could have just reopened the restaurant instead).
It seems that Hooters is nothing but a memory for Charleston now though: The building is being demolished today to make way for a Sheetz gas station.
And while I do love me some Sheetz, I’ve gotta admit, it’s just not the same ordering food from a gas-station employee with a drug problem as it was having my beer and wings brought to me by a…well, a Hooters girl with a drug problem, but that’s beside the point.
Long live Hooters, and thoughts are with my home state during this difficult time.
