Former Hooters in Farmingdale to close

Bud's Ale House, a sports bar in Farmingdale that was barely four months old after being re-branded from a Hooters, will close its doors Monday.

"There was more money being thrown out than coming in," said Ed McCabe, the attorney for Strix Restaurant Group, the holding company that owns Bud's. "We got to the point where we weren’t going to put any more capital in. It was a good shot."

Strix's other holdings, a Bud's Ale House in Fresh Meadows and another sports bar called 58's in Islandia — both former Hooters locations that had been revamped, have already shuttered their doors, McCabe said.

Strix owned four Hooters franchise locations in the area until last October, when it announced it would re-brand three of the locations and close the restaurant in East Meadow. The company was sued by its corporate franchiser Hooters of America Llc. last September for continuing to use the Hooters name while allegedly not paying franchise fees. McCabe said the lawsuit is ongoing and in the early stages.

Strix has faced a string of legal problems in the past year. Last September, the company was sued by a Korean-American man claiming an employee at the Fresh Meadows location had used a racial slur to describe him. Strix's owner, William Harley, was sued last October by a Pittsburgh nonprofit, which claimed the money management firm Harley ran mishandled a $2 million investment.

A Bud's Ale House in Astoria, also owned by Harley, will continue to operate because it is under another holding company and making a profit, McCabe said.