WWTBAM Bored

The parent company that owns Red Lobster and Olive Garden, Darden, is seriously considering closing both chains.

It's not quite an RIP yet, but the handwriting is on the wall, at least for Red Lobster. Being a native Mainer, I couldn't be happier that this abomination will cease to exist.

Naturally, there are quite a few tag lines on the internet that already proclaim its demise due to Obama!

Here's an article with some more details:

http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/red-lobst ... s-forever/

That's too bad. Used to be, when we went to the "big city," we would eat at one of those two places.

Neither are on my current list of places I choose, but they have been in the past. It is sad that such good brands have been abused by management and government.

I hate to see them go, if in fact they do. I have fond memories of dining at those restaurants with my kids when they were young.

I hated more seeing Steak & Ale close, though.

The article did not suggest that Darden was considering closing Olive Garden

BackInTex wrote:Neither are on my current list of places I choose, but they have been in the past. It is sad that such good brands have been abused by management and government.

Amazing how it's always the government's fault when a badly run company goes out of business.

When corporations ignore quality and the desires of diners in favor of the increasing bottom line of the company, they often find that bottom line shrinking rather than growing; and the real bottom line, and harsh reality for the big corporate execs, is that the food at Red Lobster and Olive Garden is often sub-par. Red Lobster may close its doors forever, but is that really such a bad thing? One thing’s for sure: if Olive Garden follows suit, many Italian foodies will rejoice.

But don't feel too bad, BiT, I'm sure that those Darden company execs will be crying all the way to the bank with what they've taken out of the company all these years.

Red Lobster may close its doors forever, but is that really such a bad thing? One thing’s for sure: if Olive Garden follows suit, many Italian foodies will rejoice.

Why should food snobs rejoice if a place they never go to fails? It just means the perceived uncultured rubes who actually liked it will have to find somewhere else to eat, and might start taking up all the tables at the foodie-approved eateries.

TheConfessor wrote:

Red Lobster may close its doors forever, but is that really such a bad thing? One thing’s for sure: if Olive Garden follows suit, many Italian foodies will rejoice.

Why should food snobs rejoice if a place they never go to fails? It just means the perceived uncultured rubes who actually liked it will have to find somewhere else to eat, and might start taking up all the tables at the foodie-approved eateries.

Where Red Lobster patrons will now go to eat:

Spoiler

silverscreenselect wrote:

BackInTex wrote:Neither are on my current list of places I choose, but they have been in the past. It is sad that such good brands have been abused by management and government.

Amazing how it's always the government's fault when a badly run company goes out of business.

Your reading comprehension is quite poor. Or maybe just the inability to think logically. May be the explanation for a lot of things.

TheConfessor wrote:

Red Lobster may close its doors forever, but is that really such a bad thing? One thing’s for sure: if Olive Garden follows suit, many Italian foodies will rejoice.

Why should food snobs rejoice if a place they never go to fails? It just means the perceived uncultured rubes who actually liked it will have to find somewhere else to eat, and might start taking up all the tables at the foodie-approved eateries.

Nah, the Golden Corral will just get busier.

I just saw an interesting point. Many people say the best thing about Red Lobster is the cheddar biscuits. If you are a seafood restaurant shouldn't your best item be, you know, seafood?

elwoodblues wrote:I just saw an interesting point. Many people say the best thing about Red Lobster is the cheddar biscuits. If you are a seafood restaurant shouldn't your best item be, you know, seafood?

I think the Cheddar Bay Biscuits were not necessarily the best thing, but what set Red Lobster apart from other restaurants. When we lived in Wichita, KS, Red Lobster was the only seafood restaurant (under $20 per person). Now that we are in Houston, we like the local seafood restaurants better but just the other day my wife did include Red Lobster in her offerings of places to eat after church (just because of those biscuits). We ended up choosing Outback though.

Seafood is evil.

Ick!

lb13

From what I read (and this was after all the "Red Lobster is Closing" headlines came out), Darden's looking to sell off the Red Lobster (and possibly Olive Garden) to an equity firm, Barrington Capital.

Of course, they were told this week by a different equity firm, Starboard Properties, after a review of their restaurants that one of the biggest problems they had was blurring of what their primary products were, specifically citing the "Italian Burger" now offered at OG. They also said there were quite of few items that Darden needed to get up to snuff to make their share price worthwhile.

Personally, OG and another Darden Restaurant, Longhorn Steakhouse, are two that are low on my eating totem pole, having had one too many sub-par meals (not bad, but less satisfying than a comparably priced meal in a similar restaurant). The Red Lobster has been reasonably good (there are better seafood restaurants around town, but RL is the closest to the house, so we'll go there instead of the others) -- ironically, it's next door to a Longhorn that has the worst service in town. Go figure.

TheConfessor wrote:

Red Lobster may close its doors forever, but is that really such a bad thing? One thing’s for sure: if Olive Garden follows suit, many Italian foodies will rejoice.

Why should food snobs rejoice if a place they never go to fails? It just means the perceived uncultured rubes who actually liked it will have to find somewhere else to eat, and might start taking up all the tables at the foodie-approved eateries.

Do you remember the lady from Grand Forks who wrote The Olive Garden review? Marilyn Hagerty?

There's now a collection of her reviews, published by Anthony Bourdain's imprint at Ecco. Bourdain wrote the forward and has said lovely things about Ms. Hagerty and her reviews.

All sans snark, because Bourdain pointed out that appreciating the food scene wherever it is that you live is a good thing.

For many people in this country, that food scene is Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

mellytu74 wrote:For many people in this country, that food scene is Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

Very true. Growing up in northwest Alabama, fine dining meant The Sizzler in Huntsville. Or maybe the Shoney's Big Boy. Or maybe the Morrison's Cafeteria. (OK, there were the occassional high-end steakhouse here or there, but they were considered too pricey for routine family dining.)

About three years ago, our joke of a local newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (which I fondly refer to as the Urinal-Constipation), revised its entertainment sections substantially. The main entertainment section appears in the Friday paper, with a secondary section in the Sunday paper and occasional articles in the Lifestyle section on other days of the week.

They got rid of their movie critics (they now publish reviews from other newspapers by critics like Roger Moore and (before his death) Roger Ebert). They have no TV critic (there's a guy who blogs about radio, TV, and local celebrity sitings in the online edition of the paper). They have a theater critic who manages to review about three local and touring productions a month (and there's lots more quality productions around then this guy reviews).

What they do have is plenty of dining critics (three full time at latest count), who take up about three pages or more in the Friday entertainment section writing full page reviews describing the aroma and texture of every single dish they tried in this restaurant. And, of course, the restaurants they review are not restaurants anyone ever actually eats at (half of the ones they review go out of business in a year or so). When they do mention an Olive Garden or a Longhorn, it's to thumb their noses at the masses who are "foolish" enough to actually pay money to eat there (the critics get their meals reimbursed by the paper), not knowing just how bad that type of food is in comparison with the marvelously subtle blend of flavors at the critics' favorite (and invariably hugely overpriced) restaurants. The restaurant review section has actually improved since it first appeared. Originally, they had four overpaid, mediocre, useless critics and now they have three. I guess that does constitute progress.

Every change the Journal has made in the last five years or so has been for the worse, but the revamping of the entertainment section to emphasize these swanky restaurants at the expense of providing information and reviews about movies, TV, theater, and the local music scene is ridiculous.

What they do have is plenty of dining critics (three full time at latest count), who take up about three pages or more in the Friday entertainment section writing full page reviews describing the aroma and texture of every single dish they tried in this restaurant.

This is what they do in Dallas as well. I have yet to find great restaurants (without paying a fortune) in the Big D. An expensive restaurant gets a wonderful review and then a year later is closed.

Rochester MN has some of the best food surprisingly. Houston has great restaurants too. Dallas nope.

geoffil wrote:

What they do have is plenty of dining critics (three full time at latest count), who take up about three pages or more in the Friday entertainment section writing full page reviews describing the aroma and texture of every single dish they tried in this restaurant.

This is what they do in Dallas as well. I have yet to find great restaurants (without paying a fortune) in the Big D. An expensive restaurant gets a wonderful review and then a year later is closed.

Rochester MN has some of the best food surprisingly. Houston has great restaurants too. Dallas nope.

Have you been to Texas de Brazil? I went to another one but saw they are in Ft. Worth too.

Have you been to Texas de Brazil?

No. I have heard they are great. Which location did you go to?

geoffil wrote:

Have you been to Texas de Brazil?

No. I have heard they are great. Which location did you go to?

2727 Cedar Springs Rd in Dallas. It is expensive but not terrible. I used to love the Brazilian place in the Mirage in Las Vegas but the last time I was there it was terrible with slow service to boot.

I've always meant to get to a Red Lobster but I haven't yet managed it. I suppose I should move it up on my priority list. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote:I've always meant to get to a Red Lobster but I haven't yet managed it. I suppose I should move it up on my priority list. --Bob

As Bucket List items go, that's pretty pathetic.

I don't care so much about the restaurants. I am disappointed that Red Lobster and Olive Garden aren't the two new colors in 2014's 64-count box of Crayola crayons.

silvercamaro wrote:I don't care so much about the restaurants. I am disappointed that Red Lobster and Olive Garden aren't the two new colors in 2014's 64-count box of Crayola crayons.

I'd have no problem with that. The tough part would be selecting two current colors to eliminate.

I guess you can number me among the "tasteless masses" - elwing and I happen to enjoy Red Lobster a great deal, particularly their shrimp scampi.