When one of America’s most important restaurant chains filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, we thought it would the end of the Cheddar Bay Biscuit. But after hiring a new CEO, 35-year-old Damola Adamolekun, the company is making a comeback and, this time, working smarter not harder to win back the hearts of Red Lobster fans everywhere.
The first thing that has got to go according to the new CEO— and brace yourself for this one— is the restaurant’s iconic $20 endless shrimp deal. Although Red Lobster goers frequented for this seemingly too good to be true deal, Adamolekun said endless shrimp led to “a lot of choas.”
The CEO sat down with CNN to discuss his plan to restrengthen Red Lobster. “This is, without exaggeration, one of the most important companies in American history,” he said. Since being hired, Adamolekun has examined the past missteps and mismanagement of the company, and he plans to remedy the discrepancies.
“When you have endless shrimp and people are coming in and sitting down at the table and eating for hours as much shrimp as they possibly can, you stress out the kitchen. You stress out the servers. You stress out the hosts,” Adamolekun told CNN. “That’s a very expensive product to give away endlessly,” he continued.
The menu deal was temporarily launched in 2004, according to Moneywise.com. When it found a permanent homeson the restaurant’s menu, that’s when things took a turn for the worse: Last year, endless shrimp cost the company $20 million.
This isn’t the only change Adamolekun is planning to make. The next issue is how the menu has simply gotten too big. “We’re going to reduce the menu but in a very intelligent way,” he said. This means in the near future, you can go to Red Lobster expecting a smaller but still satisfying list of seafood options...and don’t worry, the biscuits aren’t going anywhere.
Adamolekun also spoke on plans to fix infrastructure and technology, but he said these changes will take time. With 545 restaurants nationwide, the CEO said customers can expect a slow but noticeable impact within the franchise.
This isn’t the first time Adamolekun has been in the driver seat of a big business. Before he joined the Red Lobster team, Adamolekun was the CEO of another restaurant chain, P.F. Chang’s. After becoming CEO of that company at age 30, Adamolekun said he learned a lot and now he’s ready to take on the challenge to restore Red Lobster.