Hooter's has shut down two of its seven South Carolina restaurants and more than two dozen others as it works through a financial restructuring and toward a sale.
The Columbia and Rock Hill locations have been permanently closed, according to recorded messages left on their phones.
The company's website shows five other Palmetto State restaurants remain open in Anderson, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and North Charleston.
"After careful consideration of what is needed to best position our company for the future, Hooters made the difficult decision to close certain company-owned locations,” a spokesperson for the Atlanta-based chain said in a statement provided to CNN.
In all, about 30 restaurants were shuttered across multiple states, including Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, according to multiple media reports.
The owner of the casual dining chain, known for its chicken wings and skimpy "Hooters Girls" server uniforms, sought bankruptcy protection earlier this year in Dallas.
Under a financial restructuring plan filed March 31, more than 100 company-owned U.S. locations that account for about $700 million in annual sales are being sold to a group of existing franchisees under the name Hoot Owl Restaurants LLC.
The buyers, who include the chain's original founders, currently operate about half of the 30 highest-volume Hooters in the country, the company said.
The bankruptcy sale is scheduled for August. The latest round of closings were expected to "occur before the transaction was finalized," according to a statement issued Thursday.
Hooters had about 420 restaurants in 29 countries at the time of the bankruptcy filing. Once the sale is completed, the company will be down to about 200 U.S. locations and 60 overseas.
"We are confident that the acquisition will be finalized later this summer and we are excited to move forward into the next chapter of the Hooters brand," Hooters Inc. CEO Nel Kiefer said in the written statement.
"Decisions about store closures are never easy to make but all parties are completely aligned in bringing the necessary resources required to make the remaining 200 domestic ... locations as successful as possible," he added.
Hooters was founded in Clearwater, Fla., in 1983. Last year, the company closed around 40 underperforming U.S. restaurants.