The Truth About Red Lobster

Red Lobster occupies something of a strange place in the landscape of American dining, and Slate says it has something to do with their long-time link to the middle class. They captured the market when it came to normal American families looking for a good meal out that wasn't going to break the bank, but had better than Dollar Menu value. They were the flagship of casual family dining, and their heyday was in the 1990s.

That heyday has faded, and just like the landscape of the entire country has changed, so has dining. Red Lobster was suddenly looking at how they could win customers back rather than keep them, and that says a lot about not just what families are looking for in terms of 21st century dining, but about what they can afford. Casual has given way to fast-casual (restaurants like Chipotle and Five Guys), but one thing's for sure — nothing can beat those biscuits or the endless shrimp. So, let's talk about Red Lobster and what you might not know about this iconic American chain.

Sure, they might say it's endless shrimp, but is it really? We know that all-you-can-eat buffets aren't above kicking out their biggest eaters, and you might think it's the same principle at work. But in 2016, Business Insider headed to Red Lobster with a plan: eat so much off the Endless Shrimp menu that they were cut off.

They weren't. The two reporters sat at Red Lobster for eight hours and by the time they finished the marathon, they'd eaten a grand total of 305 shrimp — then asked for more shrimp in a bag to go. They got that, too. Over the course of what amounts to a standard work day, they found Red Lobster was not only cheering them on, but the store's manager came over and introduced them to some shrimp-filled options not on the main menu. They even offered some hints on how to keep going, including minty mojitos and ginger ale for digestion.

Just a fluke? A group from The Huffington Post tried it in 2013, and one person alone downed a staggering 101 shrimp. Endless, indeed!

While Endless Shrimp is a serious money-maker for them, Endless Snow Crab was a devastating mistake.

According to Anchor of Gold, Red Lobster introduced their Endless Snow Crab in 2003, when the price of crab was around $5 a pound. They were charging $20 per customer, and you can probably see where the math isn't going to quite work out. Only three plates into the deal and they were no longer making a profit, and ultimately, the promotion meant they were losing about $1.1 million a month while it was running.

The difference is that snow crab is highly regulated, and just how much is going to hit the market depends on what's approved by the US government. In 2002, they only allowed 172 million pounds of snow crab to be caught. That sounds like a lot, but consider this: in the late 90s, that was up to around 250 million pounds. Less crab meant higher prices, but appetites of customers always stayed the same.

Red Lobster isn't just selling lobster, they're trying to find a way to make the industry completely self-sustainable. According to ABC News, Darden Group started funding the Australian Research Council's work in developing lobster farming programs way back in 1998, and it took a pretty shocking 16 years before researchers were able to raise lobsters in captivity.

The timing is good, too, as researchers say wild lobster populations are threatened in many parts of the world, and Darden, Red Lobster's former parent company, added (via Darden Digest) that they were fully investing in protecting the lobster. In addition to helping with the launch of the Atlantic Lobster Sustainability Foundation and participating in the Global FISH Alliance, they also funded the Darden Aquafarm, where they hoped to be producing around 40 million pounds of lobster every year by 2029.

It was a huge venture, and it would be the first commercial lobster farm in the world. The Orlando Sentinel said the 23,000-acre farm would employ 12,000 people and cost $650 million — $300 million of which would come from Darden. The ultimate goal? Supply Red Lobster with sustainably raised spiny lobsters, like the one pictured. Unfortunately, Darden and Red Lobster have since parted ways, and the project appears to be at a stand-still. 

In 2016, it was Red Lobster who was in the hot water after Inside Edition did some serious DNA testing. When they took samples of the meat from the chain's lobster bisque, they found not all of it was the sort of lobster customers tended to expect: part was langostino (pictured).

That's the stuff of scandal, and Red Lobster scrambled to explain the bisque was prepared with a variety of lobster, including Maine and Langostino. The fact the tests seemed to show only this less-popular, less-expensive type of lobster (one closely related to a hermit crab) was what they questioned, and when Inside Edition wanted to know what was going on, Red Lobster called it the "luck of the ladle".

Sounds odd? They made it clear to The Oregonian they were changing the menu anyway, to more completely and accurately reflect all the ingredients. To be fair, Red Lobster wasn't the only one to be caught up in the scandal, and even Nathan's and Soupman were caught red-handed.

Now that you're full of fun Red Lobster trivia facts, let's talk about the strange history of the chain. Bill Darden had aspirations early on of being a restaurateur. At the tender age of 19, he opened the Green Frog in Waycross, Georgia in the 1930s. The 25-seat diner and drive-up service proved a hit with locals, serving up the standard diner fare of chicken, steak, and all your southern staples, providing "service with a hop." To say that Darden was ahead of the curve is an understatement. Despite being in the Deep South, the Green Frog did not segregate customers based on race.

The original Green Frog closed in Waycross in 1981. The original building remains, and the legacy of Green Frog is still known to locals today. If you drive on Interstate 75 through Georgia, between Valdosta and Tifton, a plethora of billboards direct you to King Frog, a well-known clothing boutique. It might be hard to imagine, but that boutique has nearly ancient ties to Red Lobster.

In 1973, entrepreneur John L. Williams purchased a Quality Inn in Adel, Georgia, which also made him the landlord of the attached (and successful) Green Frog restaurant. He kept the frog and made him royalty, and plastered King Frog on billboards for miles to direct the weary and mildly curious driver to Adel. So, the Green Frog led to not one, but two well-known brands.

Darden realized seafood sold very well at his restaurants, so continuing with a seafood theme seemed safe. With Gary's Duck Inn holding down Orlando, the group looked elsewhere in the Sunshine State. Lakeland, Florida, almost half-way between Orlando and Tampa, and 40 miles from the ocean, became the home of the Red Lobster Inn (the original name) in 1968. Darden and his partner Charley Woodsby had an instant hit in their "harbor for seafood lovers" — that was the original catchy slogan.

Red Lobster expanded quickly, growing to five locations, as far away as South Carolina. It soon caught the eye of General Mills. Despite only existing for two years, the partners sold Red Lobster — the entire chain — in 1970. Darden and Woodsby both remained on board, taking positions with General Mills. Charley's son, Ron Woodsby once told me that at the time, his father was thrilled to sell Red Lobster. Given the cost of lobster, it was getting expensive to obtain the product.

Woodsby is no small potatoes in the restaurant world. After selling to General Mills, Charley stuck around for a few years before taking an early retirement at the tender age of 42 — and that retirement lasted exactly one year. The restaurant bug bit again and along with son Ron, he opened Talk of the Town in Lakeland. They liked the name so much, they used it for their new restaurant conglomerate. They continued to open restaurants around the greater Central Florida area and still do today.

One of their restaurants is FishBones. If you're thinking that must be the same as the popular chain, Bonefish Grill, it's not. Ron Woodsby thought it sounded similar, too. In 2002, he sued parent company Outback Steakhouse for creeping on his name and likeness (both use fish and bones, ironically enough). You think you're confused? An employee at an Outback-owned property once "became angry" when she didn't get an employee discount at Fishbones! In case you were wondering, Bonefish Grill first opened in 2000, and Fishbones beat them by five years. And neither of them are associated with Fishbone, who started in 1979. It's a lot to take in, I know.

You'd think given the fact that without Red Lobster, there would be no Darden, they'd be a bit protective of the brand. Not when there's a profit to be made. In 2012, Red Lobster was... wait, I got this... floundering. After an up and down decade, the second quarter of 2012 saw Red Lobster sales dip 2.7 percent, and the rest of Darden's brands weren't doing well, either.

Despite being the founding chain, Darden sold Red Lobster to Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion in 2014. When you think about it, the same problems Woodsby saw in the late 1960s still exist today — fish is still expensive to stock.

Golden Gate and Thai had a vision; they wanted to keep the brand, but at the same time update the menu to make it fresh and in-line with today's tastes. And guess what? It worked. Red Lobster is a hit with millennials. Turns out, people between the ages of 18-24 called it their number one casual dining restaurant in a recent survey.

You know what really helped Red Lobster? Beyoncé. The Super Bowl 50 performance of "Formation" features Mrs. Carter singing about Red Lobster. Who knew the Bey-Hive could handle water? Sales rose 33 percent immediately after Red Lobster got the free advertising during the most-watched TV event of the year. Just what they needed.