Atlanta Residents Share Red Lobster Memories of Cheddar Bay Biscuits and Other Favorites

“This restructuring is the best path forward for Red Lobster,” CEO Jonathan Tibus said in a prepared statement. “This allows us to overcome several financial and operational challenges and emerge stronger and refocused on our growth. The support we have received from our lenders and suppliers will help ensure that we can complete the sales process quickly and efficiently while remaining focused on our employees and guests.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to continue operating while consolidating its debts. The company said it would enter into what’s called a “workhorse” purchase agreement, whereby it would sell itself to an entity formed and owned by its lenders. Red Lobster said it also secured operating financing from its lenders and that the remaining locations would remain open.

Kelley and her friends were “shocked” to hear the news. They have been frequenting Red Lobster for years, during which time they enjoy sitting at one of the large tables and enjoying their favorite items on the menu: Cheddar Bay brand biscuits, crab and popcorn shrimp.

Bill Darden founded Red Lobster in 1968 in Lakeland, Florida, hoping to provide families with affordable, accessible seafood. General Mills purchased the company in 1970 and grew the restaurant into a national chain. During its more than 50 years in business, the company has established more than 700 locations worldwide and gained a following of customers who think fondly of the famous cheddar biscuits and the tank of live lobsters front and center of each site.

General Mills later spun off what became known as Darden Restaurants into its own publicly traded company, which included the Red Lobster chain.

Darden sold Red Lobster in 2014 to a private equity firm for $2.1 billion. In 2020, another private equity firm, Thai Union, became the chain’s largest shareholder. But the channel had fallen on hard times.

About 20 miles south of Red Lobster near Truist Park, the Camp Creek Parkway location, a few miles west of the Atlanta airport, was bustling at lunchtime Monday. Francette Hammond pulled a pack of gold and black balloons out of her car as she headed to the restaurant to celebrate her grandson’s graduation. The Union City resident has been coming to Red Lobster for more than 50 years.

“I love the fish, I love these biscuits and I love the service,” she said. In 1975, she even celebrated her own high school graduation at the restaurant.

Although the Cobb Parkway location wasn’t as busy, Sandra and Robert Shumpert of Newnan were a couple of diners who stopped in the Red Lobster parking lot to take advantage of the convenient location. It’s become a tradition for the Shumperts to dine at Red Lobster before attending a nearby Braves game, providing a tasty way to score free parking.

Sandra Shumpert was taken aback by the news of Red Lobster’s bankruptcy, but her husband wasn’t surprised. He noticed other Newnan restaurant chains closing their doors in recent years.

“It’s not a good thing,” Robert Shumpert said. “That’s how the economy works.”

Other metro Atlanta residents who learned of Red Lobster’s closing shared their own memories online. Sherry Burnett Geist said on Facebook that her family goes to Red Lobster every February after receiving their tax return.

“We dressed like we were really going somewhere special,” she wrote. “We kids (six of us) all had Shirley Temples, and my mother and father had the fancy drink in the collector’s lighthouse glass.”

Michael Erickson said in an email to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the restaurant was “the pinnacle of fine dining” for him growing up. Erickson’s favorite dish was fried shrimp, “simple, tasty and crunchy!” »

“They also had the best deep dark orange French dressing,” Erickson wrote. “When my dad orders a salad anywhere, he always says, ‘I hope the French one is as good as the one at Red Lobster.'”

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