Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, October 22nd.

Today on Forbes, for Hooters' original founders, saving the chain is a higher calling, quote,

America needs us.

Last winter, Neil Kiefer, CEO of the original Hooters Founders Group, heard that the

franchisor and operator of the Florida-based restaurant chain, known as Hooters Founders Group, heard that the franchisor and operator of the Florida-based

restaurant chain, known as Hooters of America, was about to go bankrupt. So the 73-year-old

Kiefer, a longtime friend of the three living co-founders of the Chicken Wing Empire, called

them up and laid their options on the table.

The group's 22 locations in Florida and Chicago were averaging $4.7 million in annual sales per location, Kiefer explained, while Hooters of America's 150 locations were bringing

in less than half that, $2.3 million each.

Kiefer believed they could turn around the failing restaurants and made a bold proposal.

He told them, quote, I can drop this whole thing and will just exist as we have in the territories we have, or we can take a bigger risk.

The original group, Gil Dijian Antonio, who is 77 years old, Edward Drostey,

who is 74, and Dennis Johnson, also 74, told Kiefer they were in. Drosti told Forbes,

quote, we need to open a restaurant like a hole in the head, but we've always been America's

neighborhood oasis, and, now more than ever, America needs us.

Kiefer and the original Hooters crew could easily be enjoying their golden years on golf courses

or the beaches of Florida.

Instead, they are leading a deal to acquire 111 Hooters' locations out of bankruptcy and planning

to invest about $40 million into turning around the challenge chain.

Kiefer, who was the co-founder's attorney when Hooters was founded in Clearwater, Florida in

1983, says the group feels an emotional connection to the chain and don't want to see the brand die.

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