Fish lovers are in for some bad news: many beloved seafood chains are on their way out. If your favorite seafood restaurant has a location near you, now may be the time to stock up before it closes its doors as well. Things have been bad for the restaurant industry as a whole ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for dine-in establishments. While it's true franchises have been impacted by the pandemic, some have had problems prior to 2020. These are the seafood chains that are disappearing across the country.
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00:00There's no gentle way to put it. It's tough being a seafood chain these days. Could Red
00:04Lobster be on its way out? And which franchise is down to its last location? Keep watching
00:10to find out.
00:12Founded in 1969, Long John Silver's has a storied history few seafood chains can match.
00:17Sadly, if things don't turn around quickly, that story may be coming to an abrupt end.
00:22In 1989, Long John Silver's expanded to a record-high 1,500 locations, but that same
00:29year, the chain was purchased by a group of private investors in a bid to get a handle
00:33on its mounting debt burden. It's been nearly all bad news ever since.
00:37A small sampling of the restaurant's low points over the years includes filing for bankruptcy
00:42in 1998, getting hit with a branding lawsuit in 2010, and as the cherry on top, having
00:47the Center for Science in the Public Interest declare its big catch the worst restaurant
00:52meal in America.
00:54All this has led to a drop in popularity and, in turn, the number of locations. QSR Magazine
00:59reports that the chain had 1,000 restaurants in 2015. There are now under 700 Long John
01:05Silver's locations in the country.
01:08Unlike many of its competitors, who can blame the COVID-19 pandemic for their troubles,
01:12Kona Grills' downturn has been largely self-inflicted. According to Restaurant Business Online,
01:17in the four-year span from 2013 to 2017, the seafood chain doubled its location total from
01:2323 to 46. Unfortunately, the company admitted its rapid expansion was one of the main factors
01:29in its recent downfall. Each restaurant costs roughly $4 million to open, but in 2015, sales
01:36began to drop.
01:37With little available money on hand, Kona stopped opening new restaurants in 2017 and
01:42focused on reducing costs. This also proved to be unwise. Cutting staffing, marketing,
01:48and culinary improvements helped the company's bottom line in the short term, but led to
01:52an overall drop in standards and, in turn, a further drop in revenue.
01:56All of this culminated in the company filing for bankruptcy in 2019. At the same time,
02:02it announced the closings of 15 restaurants, dropping its total down to 27 locations. According
02:07to its website, Kona Grill is down to 24 stores at the time of this video.
02:12Houston-based Joe's Crab Shack is another chain whose problems predate the COVID-19
02:17In June 2017, parent company Ignite Restaurant Group filed for bankruptcy. Apparently, the
02:23best operational strategy it came up with was to close dozens of restaurants because
02:27less than two months after the bankruptcy announcement, news dropped that Joe's Crab
02:30Shack had shuttered more than 40 locations.
02:34FSR Magazine reported that there were 140 Joe's Crab Shack restaurants as recently as
02:392014. The mass closings left the company with 72 locations, with a former employee telling
02:45Consumerist at the time that Ignite, quote, only wants 60 Joe's Crab Shack locations to
02:50remain open. A quick look at the chain's website, however, shows that there are fewer than 50
02:55restaurants across just 18 states. Many of these states have only a single location,
02:59so any more closings could spell the complete disappearance of Joe's Crab Shack for large
03:03parts of the country.
03:05In 2011, seafood chain McCormick & Schmick's was purchased by Landry's, Inc., owners of
03:10casual restaurants including Bubba Gump and Joe's Crab Shack. At the time of the purchase,
03:15according to The Oregonian, Landry's CEO said,
03:18"[McCormick & Schmick's fell victim to the need to grow and located some restaurants
03:22in secondary markets which were adversely impacted to a greater degree by the economic
03:26downturn."
03:27At least three restaurants closed the very next year, and in 2017, Landry's turned off
03:33the lights in nearly one-third of its locations. Then, in 2020, some of McCormick & Schmick's
03:38premier outposts were shut down. All these closings have left McCormick & Schmick's
03:42with under 30 restaurants to its name, per the company's website, less than one-third
03:47of what it had a decade ago.
03:49The first Lost Cajun opened in 2010 and was an immediate success. So much so, owner Raymond
03:55Griffin opened a second location just two years later. The upward trajectory continued
04:00for quite a while. In 2016, Griffin told the Denver Business Journal he expected to grow
04:04the business to 100 restaurants. But then, the Lost Cajun ran into a wall known as the
04:10COVID-19 pandemic. Like so many other chains, the company was forced to close locations
04:14and in April 2021, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
04:19According to Restaurant Business Online, the company said in court documents,
04:22"...a number of the Lost Cajun franchisees failed and those that remain open suffered
04:26significant revenue losses, with some indicating to the franchisor that closings are imminent."
04:32However, they have started to turn things around. According to a January 2022 press
04:37release, the Lost Cajun did open four new locations during the pandemic and have two
04:41more planned for early 2022.
04:44The Academy Award-winning film Forrest Gump remains as highly regarded today as it was
04:48when it came out in 1994. The restaurant chain, based on the movie, however, seems to be getting
04:53less popular by the year.
04:55"...shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp
05:03sandwich."
05:05Inspired by the fictional shrimping company in the film, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company has
05:08been serving Southern-style seafood dishes for over two decades. Business was good for
05:13most of that time, allowing the chain to expand across the country, as well as overseas. However,
05:18recent years have not been as kind. Bubba Gump has closed down restaurants every year
05:23since at least 2018. It started in Hawaii, when the Kailua-Kono location was shuttered.
05:29Per Live 5 News, less than a year later, a Bubba Gump restaurant in Charleston shut its
05:33doors for good after nearly two decades of business. In 2020, the Bubba Gump at Chicago's
05:38Navy Pier closed, and in 2021, another Hawaii location, this one in Maui, said goodbye.
05:44Today, Bubba Gump finds itself with just over 20 restaurants, according to its website.
05:51Bubba's Restaurants is a culinary empire consisting of several different restaurant concepts.
05:55Recently, that empire has had a few bricks fall out from its foundation. In June 2020,
06:00Restaurant Business Online reported that the Texas-based company announced it had closed
06:04five restaurants in its hometown of Houston. According to CultureMap, Bubba's struggles
06:08were also brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Included amongst the closings were two Bubba's
06:14Seafood House restaurants, leaving just three locations still standing. Also shuttered was
06:18the company's only Bubba's Shrimp Shack restaurant, which had been open less than a year. The
06:23other seafood-based eatery to meet its demise was a Papadoa Seafood Kitchen location. This
06:28is the company's one chain, however, that could likely afford to lose a restaurant.
06:33There are dozens of Papadoa outposts across several states, including a number of locations
06:37still open in Houston.
06:39News of disappearing Red Lobster restaurants isn't new. In fact, back in 2013, there were
06:44rumors the chain was shutting down for good and closing all 700-plus locations amid declining
06:49sales. That turned out not to be the case, but Red Lobster's luck hasn't gotten any better
06:54in recent years. According to Seafood Source, in early 2020, credit rating agency Moody's
06:59downgraded Red Lobster's credit and predicted the restaurant would fare worse during the
07:03coronavirus pandemic than other chains. Lo and behold, just a few months later, CEO Kim
07:08Lopdrup admitted,
07:10We're in the most challenging time Red Lobster has faced in our 52 years of operation. While
07:15there were once more than 700 Red Lobsters across the country, there are currently just
07:19672 locations, according to Scrape Hero. With the pandemic still hampering restaurants,
07:25particularly those of the casual dining variety, it wouldn't be surprising to see that number
07:29continue to fall.
07:32Bonefish Grill, the market-fresh seafood chain owned by Outback Steakhouse parent company
07:36Blumen Brands, has been steadily closing locations for years. In 2016, Seafood Source reported
07:42that Blumen announced it would be closing 14 underperforming Bonefish Grill restaurants
07:47within the next three years. Before the year was out, three such locations already had
07:51their doors closed for good.
07:54But it appears 14 was just a starting point. According to Seafood Source, there were 210
07:59Bonefish Grill restaurants in the United States in 2016. As of this video, the restaurant's
08:04website says there are just 185. If recent news is an indicator, that number could drop
08:09even lower in the near future. In late 2021, MarketWatch reported that the company's stock
08:14price fell 4 percent after its restaurants failed to hit sales goals. And as history
08:18has shown us, underperforming Bonefish Grill locations tend to find themselves on the chopping
08:23block.
08:25Depending on how old you are, you may have fond memories of the incredibly popular seafood
08:29chain known as Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, or you might have never even heard
08:34of it before. According to QSR Magazine, the restaurant, which was founded in 1969, once
08:39counted 826 locations to its name. But a lot has changed since Arthur Treacher's heyday
08:45of the 1970s and 80s. In fact, the chain is now down to just one restaurant.
08:50In June of 2021, Spectrum News reported that the location in Garfield Heights, Ohio, shut
08:55down, leaving the restaurant in nearby Cuyahoga Falls as the last remaining artifact of a
09:00former culinary dynasty. Restaurant investor Robert Allen said,
09:04"...when a customer walks in the door and you haven't seen them for years and they're
09:08so excited that Arthur Treacher's is still here, still selling the fish, it just motivates
09:12me more to hang in here, just to see, one day, that someone's going to come in here
09:17and say, come on, let's put this thing back together."
09:19Fans of Arthur Treacher's may not be able to visit the restaurant anymore, but they
09:22can still enjoy its food. In June, Nathan's Famous announced a partnership to sell Arthur
09:27Treacher's Fish & Chips in a ghost kitchen concept, according to Spectrum News.