That is not Red Lobster fault, however.
I haven’t been to a Red Lobster since 2001, but we have locations in Little Rock and North Little Rock and it seems like a popular choice among African Americans in my area. I did tell my wife I might want to eat there again for old time’s sake before it goes completely under (if that is going to happen). That doesn’t mean racism with the company as a whole, but I don’t know if it’s a problem in my neck of the woods.
When I was younger, Red Lobster was where you went for special occasions like your birthday. Seafood options where I lived were sparse and Red Lobster was pretty much it. I just checked online and they still have the Admiral’s Feast on the menu!
The Red Lobster in Little Rock Arkansas opened in the early 1970’s. It was looking pretty worn and shabby the last time I visited.
It needed remodeling with new carpet. The appearance of a restaurant matters. The company has to invest money in maintenance and upgrades.
It’s not on the closure list. I probably should go again pretty soon. I usually order fried shrimp.
Trip Advisor gives the Little Rock location 3.5 stars. Not terrible and not great either.
This was one of the locations that closed last week. One of 3 in the state that closed, while another 3 remained open.
If I go I’ll hit the one up in North Little Rock then. I don’t think it’s as old as the one in LR proper.
Yeah, but to be fair, how much of that can you really lay on Red Lobster and not just on Salina, Kansas?
Some quick Googling tells me they’ve lynched 55 people in their history, according to the Kansas Historical Society, which I assume is just the “official” number. Who knows what the real one is.
In Salina? Highly doubtful.
I believe that figure is the entire state. And the last one was probably about 100 years ago.
Oh yeah, the server and the other table were racist, but no evidence Red Lobster or anyone else there was racist. To me, the most surprising thing was how offhand the comment from the server to the other table was. Perhaps she knew them, and that they would agree, or it was just Thursday evening in Salina. If she’d said that to us we would have said something cutting to show her the error of her ways mumbled they weren’t bothering us, and avoided another round of what would probably be floor biscuits.
The disappointing part about Red Lobster was the poor quality of the food that day. Perhaps I just ordered wrong, but it was not good, which was disappointing as it was always our go to special place for birthdays and such.
If that’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
As someone who does not like seafood, Red Lobster used to be a reasonable choice as I could get a steak and my partner could have his fish. We actually had several good experiences. Over the years the location we frequented became downright filthy. I expect a seafood restaurant to smell fishy but not like bilge water. Do you suppose the biscuit mix will still be available after it’s gone? Easiest and most popular pot luck contribution ever.
Statista says that there were 54 lynchings in Kansas since 1882. And 35 of those victims were white. The last lynching in Salina probably occurred in 1893. Proving that Salina is an incredibly racist place.
I can’t help thinking some of these incidents are tangential to the thread.
I am someone who appreciates fine cuisine, yet I unironically, unapologetically have loved Red Lobster as well.
When the kids were young, it was a family-friendly restaurant we could take them to, and there was something for all of us. The kids would happily fill up on Cheddar Bay biscuits and chicken fingers, wife would have the lobster alfredo and I would have a steamed live Maine lobster with baked potato and broccoli. You can’t really mess a meal like that up-- simple perfection.
The older son’s palate never developed much past that of a 5 year old, but later my younger son started getting more adventurous, ordering the snow crab kid’s meal. So Red Lobster helped serve as his gateway to Culinary Adventure 101.
Costco started selling boxes of Cheddar Bay biscuit mix, which was great for the kids. I’d grind up cauliflower into powder in a food processor and add it to the biscuit mix before baking, to sneakily get my extremely vegetable-adverse kids a serving of veggies. They were never the wiser.
As a bonus it was entertaining to the kids to watch dad devour a Lobster that they had just seen in the tank out front a few minutes ago. Priceless memories for fairly cheap back then.
They were talking about Red Lobster on the public radio show Marketplace yesterday. One thing their guest mentioned is that younger people tend to think of these big chain restaurants like Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Applebee’s, etc. as “That place my grandparents like to go to”. I mean I’m in my 40s now, I probably do that myself. I typically try to seek out a local restaurant rather than going of one of the big chains.
Regarding Red Lobster, specifically, we didn’t actually have one in our town when I was a kid, so I don’t have a whole lot of memories of eating there. I think the nearest one was maybe 20 miles away in a bigger town. But whenever we were in a place that had a Red Lobster I would beg my parents to take us there, probably because of the novelty factor. But Dad was always reluctant. I think he thought Red Lobster was “expensive”.
Sixty bucks? That’s outrageous. You can get a really good meal at a great seafood restaurant for less than that. I probably haven’t been to Red Lobster in 10 years. Since my wife doesn’t like seafood I probably will never go again. A good seafood place down at the shore will still have good other choices so I’ll be able to get my fix in a nicer and apparently cheaper place.
In my experience Red Lobster is something you can expect someone to be racist about rather than the restaurant being racist.
Over the years, Mrs. Odesio and I have pretty much stopped going to most of the bigger chain restaurants. I’m not entirely sure if its because our tastes have changed, the quality of those restaurants declined, or the quality of the competition simply increased. Perhaps a combination?
I’m not big on Italian food, so my wife likes to say “Olive Garden” when I ask her what she wants for dinner, so a few months ago I surprised her by taking her there. It was a miserable experience for both of us. I got the lasagna, one of the few pasta dishes I like, and it wasn’t the least bit good. And it was expensive. Well, expensive for what we got. Had I liked the meal I wouldn’t have minded the price. It had been 15-20 years since I had last been to an Olive Garden, but I didn’t remember it being that bad.
Maybe a lot of those old family restaurant mainstays simple haven’t kept up with the tastes of changing demographics?
One thing about living in New Jersey is that every pizza place will do lasagna or any other basic Italian American mainstay 100 times better than Olive Garden. I have three in less than a 2 mile radius and 2 higher end Italian places. OG’s sauces are way too heavy and they rely too much on cream and cheese. Balance of flavors is the key to good food.
To me the best of those family type chains is still Applebees. Cheap and fast but the food is simple and decent. Unfortunately they closed the one near me.
In fairness, sixty Canadian dollars gets you biscuits, a side, vegetable, shrimp, some crab legs and a lobster tail. It seems pricey to me; a place close by sells excellent fresh and frozen fish far cheaper. But it is also true many restaurants are dealing with inflation, changing expectations and staffing difficulties. There may be mitigating circumstances.
Olive Garden’s salad, which you get free with most meals, is still very good. The rest is nothing special.