What Killed Red Lobster? | Chain Reaction | 3
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Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Business Wars TikTok vs. the USA early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Hey, I'm David Brown and this is Business Wars. Think about your favorite chain restaurant. What keeps you going back? Is it the meal deals? Always knowing your signature order? An endless shrimp promotion, perhaps?

And what about the nostalgia of it all? Maybe setting foot into a Red Lobster or a Chili's brings you back to another era, one where high schoolers with nowhere else to go could splurge on half-price apps after 9 p.m., and birthdays could be celebrated with a free dessert with the waitstaff shouting out the proprietary birthday cheer. I don't know what I've been told. Someone here is getting old. But during the 2008 recession, and again during the pandemic,

It seemed like chain restaurants and their gimmicky goodness were in danger of disappearing altogether. Plus, after 40 years in operation, your average Olive Garden looked a lot less exciting than the newer independent places. Well, now the tides have shifted.

You walk into that same Olive Garden on a Saturday night, and more often than not, you could be waiting almost an hour for a table. There's been a chain-a-sance, if you will, and restaurants are figuring out how to capitalize on this newfound popularity. Joining us today is Amy McCarthy, a reporter for Eater, who covers the intersection of casual dining, pop culture, and online trends.

She's helping us understand why chains are so popular again and how they can sustain it. Plus, she'll add her own theories about where Red Lobster went wrong and what they're doing now to get out of hot water. Later, we'll hear from Jordan Myrick, a writer for the website Sport, where they rank and review all the buzziest new products showing up on grocery store shelves. Jordan has uncovered the best frozen raviolis, fried chicken, even cauliflower crust pizzas.

Now they're helping us bite into Red Lobster's frozen selections to determine if Cheddar Bay biscuits can taste just as good at home or if some delicacies are best enjoyed in person. All that's coming up. You know, managing your workforce can be exhausting. Are you tired of a costly and lengthy hiring process?

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Yeah. So I cover a wide range of things at Eater, everything from, you know, sort of viral online trends to policy and labor and chain restaurants have kind of become a focus or an interest.

Yeah. Yeah.

Ooh, that's a tough one. I think both Olive Garden and Chili's have done really, really well in the last five to seven years. I think, you know, the numbers bear that out, but I also think they've done a lot culturally to stay relevant, to make people interested in them. But, you know, I noticed maybe like five years ago that Chili's started doing the two for 25 promotion. You could get a meal for two people for 25 bucks. And, you know, when you're in your twenties and you're broke, it

You can't really do better than that for a date night. I have a lot of affinity for Chili's. Big Chili's fan. What's your favorite thing at Chili's?

Well, you know, right now it is the triple dipper, which is their appetizer sampler thing. You can pick three different things and, you know, you just go there with a friend, you get a margarita and you sit over this beautiful triple dipper and eat carbs dipped in ranch dressing while you complain about, you know, the state of the world. I totally, you know, and I'll tell you what I loved from Chili's and they don't have it on their menu anymore. I can remember being in Annapolis, Maryland and having my first chili.

Trio of tacos, like not the hard shell tacos, but soft tacos. It was, I thought, sublime. And it used to have this wonderful salsa. And when I go now, I'm kind of disappointed that they don't have that stuff. And I sort of wonder when it comes to chain restaurants, a lot of people get hooked on these menu items.

that they keep coming back for. And when they're gone, that can really hurt a chain restaurant. Totally. The Paradise Pie at Chili's, it was like this cookie dessert. I still think about it. They haven't had it on the menu in like probably 15 years or better. But it is very much missed in my heart. But I think that that's very connected to, you know, just nostalgia and the way that

you know if you had a really happy childhood you want to have things from your childhood you want to have the sunday dinner at olive garden with the big bowl of salad on the table and the breadsticks that you're like fighting your brother and sister over and whether or not it was the best food you ever had in your life it was still like pretty meaningful to you yeah yeah and it kind of takes the place of comfort food i mean some of these chain restaurants

took the place of that, I think. Yeah, I think so. You know, a lot of people transition from having Sunday dinner at grandma's house to having, you know, meeting after church at Applebee's or going to Chili's. And when you have that sort of association with it over the years, it's,

It's kind of impossible to not crave it. You know, sometimes I just wake up and I'm like, man, you know what I would really go for right now is a is a Cheddar Bay biscuit from Red Lobster. They're fishing for millennials, aren't they? Totally. As a millennial, you know, we took a lot of blame for these chains kind of suffering financially. You know, the millennials killed chain restaurants thing was a trope for a while. I've heard that. Yeah.

And, you know, I think to some extent that was true. I think people my age and people a little older than me did get tired of going to just like mediocre restaurants and these independent restaurants with their cool chefs and their trendy ingredients were much more appealing. And I think as millennials financial situation has shifted, that trend.

interest and consistency is really high. They may not think that Olive Garden is the best restaurant they've ever been to in their life, but they know when they go and they get the chicken gnocchi soup, it's going to taste like it does every other time that they come.

That, you know, because it is exactly the same that the they're going to leave the chocolate mints on the table when you leave, you can get your salad for the next day. You know, I think Olive Garden has really met people where they are. And I think that's how they've been able to maintain that loyalty. Have you heard of this thing called Chain Fest in Los Angeles? No.

Totally. I was so jealous. I could not go last year. We're throwing a food festival for thousands. The world's first celebration of the chain restaurants we love. This was started by BJ Novak, who I think was in the office, right? Yes. And this is back in 2023 when he started this. And this

Brings together chains from all over the country like Red Robin, Domino's KFC. I think the lobster is part of this. Chili's, your favorite. Very trendy with a lot of celebrities. That doesn't seem to square in my own head that a chain restaurant would be trendy. What's going on?

Yeah, I think I really do think there is a little bit of a cultural backlash to the independent restaurant era. I think people are a little burned by that feeling of going to dinner with a spouse, you know, spending with a date, spending two hundred dollars on a bunch of little bites of crudo and little, you know, whatever. And then walking out of the restaurant and looking at their partner and saying, OK, do you want to go to Taco Bell?

Because they're still hungry. I think there has been a very palpable response to that. I think people feel like they are spending so much money in restaurants and maybe not getting what they feel like they should get for that amount of money. I totally get that. But I almost feel like there's pushback against the pretentiousness and kind of wanting something that's more...

maybe more reliable, maybe something that you know is going to fill you up and it's going to taste pretty good at the same time. Yeah. I think you go to these restaurants and maybe you have a pretty good meal, but how many different ways can we have glazed Brussels sprouts or blistered shishito peppers? And I think people feel they're just like, okay, I'm going to go to Olive Garden where nobody's going to make me feel like an a**hole.

I can't, I'm sorry, if I can't pronounce the name of the wine or, you know, I'm going to feel welcome in a sense that maybe I don't in a place that I,

don't feel cool. Totally get that. Totally get that. We've been talking millennials. What do you think about Gen Z? Are they are they getting into this chain restaurant thing, too? Absolutely. They are. I'm working on a different piece about fast food right now. The kids love fast food chains. They love their Taco Bell. They love their Chipotle. And a lot of things have changed in restaurants since millennials were, you know, in their early 20s.

And now I think young people have pretty limited dining budgets. The wages are suppressed and people aren't making as much money as they were 15 or 20 years ago. Things cost more. And so I think when you're working within that very limited budget, you want it to hit every single time. You don't want to go try new things. I totally, totally get that. But I wonder if taken together, the millennials and Gen Z, if it'll be enough to save...

the chain restaurants? I mean, is, are they here to stay? Well, there will certainly be some chains that, that go away, you know, places that, yeah, I think there will be places that survive and there will be winners and losers.

I think we're actually going to see the opposite. I think we're going to see more chainification, something that's already happening in independent restaurants. I will plug here Eater.com's package on the chainification of America last year that we did last year. We looked at it from a lot of different lenses and, you know, even independent restaurants, the Carbones in New York and the Nobu's, those are chains now.

Chains are a very effective business model for the restaurant industry. It's very difficult for one restaurant to make money. It's easier when you have 10 that are, you know, obviously well-funded, but scale gives you opportunity and it gives you the ability to cut your costs, to, you know, kind of spread your administrative expenses around. And we've seen that. We've seen that with the most successful restaurant businesses in this country, that they have opened multiple locations. Let's play a game here.

I know that if there were only one chain restaurant that I would lose it if it disappeared. I know what that restaurant would be.

For me, it would be Red Robin because I do associate so many memories with Red Robin, so many times taking the kids to the Robin. And honestly, I've had my heart broken twice. Twice have Red Robin restaurants that have been just a go-to have closed, right? And so I'm really kind of sensitive around this one.

If there is only one chain restaurant that you could eat at for the rest of your life, you know, the one. I think I know the answer, by the way. Which one would you choose? You know, it is a little bit tough. You know, I think... God, such a good question. I think...

Are we counting fast food restaurants in this as well? Okay, we'll allow it. Yes. Do I have to give up McDonald's french fries forever in this scenario? I understand why you asked the question, but yeah, let's... I think about restaurants way too granularly. So I'm thinking, you know, are we talking fast food chain? Are we talking fast casual chain? Are we talking casual restaurants? So I have tears for each of those. I'll let you define it because I understand how difficult this must be.

especially for someone who writes about this. What would you say? You just, you'd really miss it if it were gone.

Yeah, I mean, I guess at the end of the day, it is Chili's. You know, Chili's was one of two chain restaurants in the small town where I grew up, and it was kind of walkable for my high school. So it was a very cool thing to do to skip school and go to Chili's. And to sit in the booth, right? Yeah, absolutely. Totally. You sit there with your friends and you pool together your $11 and, you know, just torture a waitress. You just order water, you know, glasses of water and...

bowls of free chips and, you know, sit there for hours and linger. So, yeah, I think and I think, too, the fact that they serve booze there, I can't get a margarita at McDonald's. Amy McCarthy is a reporter for Eater, where she covers dining, pop culture and all of your favorite chain restaurants. Let's take a quick break here. When we come back, we're going to be fishing for some answers on whether this wave of chain restaurant popularity is enough to revive Red Lobster. Stay with us. What makes a leader?

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Just imagine where the VentureX Business Card from Capital One can take your business. Capital One, what's in your wallet? Terms and conditions apply. Find out more at CapitalOne.com slash VentureXBusiness. Hey, welcome back to Business Wars. Our guest is Amy McCarthy, a reporter for the online publication Eater, where she covers the intersection of pop culture, dining, and chain restaurants. I'm curious, how much of a thing was Red Lobster when you were coming up?

Sure. So I grew up in a small town, population about 30,000, and Red Lobster was like a big deal. It was a thing you had to do when you went to a larger city. So my family, you know, sometimes we would, you know, on a Saturday, if we were going to go school clothes shopping or whatever, we would go to the Red Lobster in front of the mall in Sherman, Texas, which really wasn't much of a mall. But, you know, that was a treat. It was a thing that you looked forward to.

My brother, who's about four years younger than me, when he was a kid, he and his like like a truck full of his football buddies loaded up and went to, I believe, this exact same Red Lobster in Sherman, Texas, and like ate the restaurant out of shrimp.

That was like their goal. That's what they wanted to do. Shape of things to come, I think. Totally. Now when I think about that, you know, they were kind of the original scammers of the endless strip promotion. Talk about the vibe at Red Lobster. I guess they tried to update their restaurants at one point, right? Is your memory of Red Lobster kind of more sort of upscale? What do you remember about Red Lobster?

Sure. I mean, I think in my like eight year old eyes, it was very fancy because they had lobster and, you know, cloth napkins or whatever. But I think now if I'm thinking about it, it was very coastal grandma, very, you know, plastic fish on the wall, you

Lots of puns on signs. You know, it always was kind of a little cheesy. Yeah, yeah. You think that has worked against it? I mean, they've tried to update. You know, we talked about this in our series, how they tried to set up store in Ohio that kind of had a more rustic Maine seafood restaurant look, you know, and in a sense, they've

It was upscale in a backhanded way, if you know what I'm saying. It would be the kind of place that if you were, if you had the money to go on a fancy vacation up to Maine or something, you might stop in at a local seafood place. And that was the vibe they were kind of projecting. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Totally. And I think, you know, I think that was there. That was the miscalculation. You know, Red Lobster, I think, has always been a seafood restaurant for people who don't live near amazing seafood restaurants. Yeah. You're in Ohio or something and you want some New England fish. Right. You know, and, you know, when you now there are just so many more, you know, thanks to shipping. And now you can have fish that was caught this morning in Alaska, you know, on your doorstep in Texas a day later, you

You know, the global shipping chain has changed that in a lot of ways. But I think for

Most people, their encounter with Red Lobster was in the suburbs, in a place that was totally landlocked, where lobster did feel like an exotic food, not something that your uncle gets off the boat because you live in Maine. You know, let's talk about why Red Lobster is such a big part of our culture. You know, I'm thinking about how rapper Flava Flav bought everything on the menu when he heard about the bankruptcy. And then, of course, there's Beyonce, who name-checked the restaurant and her song Formation.

And you've also got celebrities like Chris Rock and Nicki Minaj who've said that they worked at Red Lobster once upon a time. What's going on here?

Okay. Not to get off on too far of a tangent here, but fine dining used to mean different things to different people. Now we think of fine dining as going to, you know, a Michelin star restaurant or going to, you know, the hot new cool place in your city. But if you're from a small town, if you're from the suburbs or if you're from a poor area or whatever, none of those places are accessible to you. And so what's fancy to you is different. Right.

You know, for my family, like I was perfectly middle class as a kid, but Red Lobster was like a fancy dinner to go out and for my parents to get cocktails and for, you know, my brother and I to get shrimp and steak or whatever. You know, that was like a that was a classy thing to do in the early 90s, you know, among a certain subset of people. And so I think that,

The reason it is this like cultural touchstone is because it was at one point a little bit aspirational. It was, you know, a nicer place. And that's also true for places like the Olive Garden. You know, people go on dates to the Olive Garden. Valentine's Day is one of the busiest nights of the year at Olive Garden. When that news broke that Red Lobster had filed for bankruptcy, I think it really disappointed, really hit a lot of people. What about you?

I mean, I would have to say that I wasn't totally surprised when it happened. Yeah. I mean, I just thought that Red Lobster had kind of had a rough decade prior. It felt very stagnant. You know, it felt like they weren't doing anything to make me want to go in there beyond my, you know, random every five years nostalgia for a plate of. Wait a minute. You were you were drawn in by the endless shrimp. I mean, that was all over TikTok. Remember? Totally. And I think

You know, endless shrimp time is like amateur hour. That's when like the worst customers in the world are in there. That's when people are just demanding these additional plates of shrimp. And like, if that's not what you want, if you want, you know, I don't know, lobster pasta or whatever, endless shrimp time is not the time to go there. Aha. So you were sort of thinking smart about this. You were thinking, I don't want to be around when everyone's stuffing their face with endless shrimp. Right.

Right. And I mean, I think everybody and Bread Lobster itself has acknowledged it, that like Endless Shrimp was a rough time for the restaurants because like the servers were all harried and running around and trying to get, you know, just plate upon plate of shrimp to people. They weren't making any money because they were doing all this extra work for, you know, what was comparatively a pretty low ticket price compared to what, you know, it might've been without the promotion. Right. And yeah, so I think that...

I think it just sucked. It wasn't a good time to go when everybody in the restaurant's like inhaling shrimp or running after people who want to inhale shrimp. Totally. But here's an interesting thing, though. Red Lobster had done this endless shrimp promotion, you know, like each year, once each year they would do this endless shrimp thing. And it worked so well when they were doing the promotion that they thought, hey, let's do this year round. Let's just make this a thing.

Uh, too much of a good thing. Maybe. I mean, I'm just trying to understand why it would work as a kind of annual promotion. And yet it would seem to sink the ship if you'll pardon the pun when, when, you know, when they started doing this full time.

Yeah. I mean, I think that was really the grand miscalculation of it all. I think people don't want endless shrimp all the time. And when it's not limited or it's not a short period of time, it's not special anymore. You can do it anytime. And, you know, I think to the new CEO of Red Lobster, who I think is really exciting and has some really interesting ideas is.

You know, he said when you're basically giving it away for free, people begin to wonder about the quality. I'll say there's a brand impact. And, you know, when you're giving away free shrimp, people start to question the quality of the product. And I think that that was absolutely the case. OK, if you go to Costco, I'm not going to walk out that door until I get my dollar and a half hot dog. I mean, that's just right.

Okay. So lost leaders have always played a role in that. Exactly. So could they have done it differently? Was there a way they could have made this work? Absolutely. Like you said, the Costco hot dog, the rotisserie chicken, you know, there are plenty of places who make a lot of money losing money on a couple of their products.

And I think that trying to figure out how to give that promotion to consumers without totally screwing over your business, I think is the interesting part of that calculus. First of all, you have to be making money to do a promotion in which you give away a significant amount of product. You have to be in a better financial situation than Red Lobster was when they decided to do Endless Shrimp Year Round. You know, that just really felt like such a last ditch effort, you know, to save money.

ship that was, you know, kind of sticking out of the air at a certain point. Yeah, I totally, totally take that point. You mentioned the new CEO at Red Lobster, Damola Ademalekan, and he's been walking back this endless shrimp promotion. What other changes have you picked up on in trying to revive the chain? They are finally getting on board with sort of mobile loyalty and

getting people to who come in regularly and order the same things to earn points and sort of reward the people who are coming back while also informing the company of what

those people are interested in. You know, I don't know how much Red Lobster can do to win back the people who are like, I'm not going to that place. It's gross. But what they need to do is maintain the people who really, really love it if they want to stay around. Another thing I meant to mention that I think they've been trying to do is really reemphasize the freshness of their food. Mm-hmm.

On their website, they note that the Cheddar Bay biscuits are baked every 15 minutes. Like, hey, we are really trying to turn around from feeling like a place where we just throw your shrimp and biscuits in the microwave. Yeah, yeah. I wonder if there are lessons that other chain restaurants, since you have such an affinity for them –

I wonder if there are lessons that they could learn from Red Lobster's fall and potential rise again. I mean, their story's not over. Yeah, and I think we've seen this kind of thing happen with other chains. Applebee's, maybe like eight to ten years ago, they were giving away booze. You know, you could go to an Applebee's and get a Long Island iced tea for a dollar. And now they still do those cocktail promotions. They're just a little more infrequent.

or they're a little more specialized. You know, it's not, you can't get these five drinks for a dollar at all times. You can get this drink for a dollar at happy hour or whatever. So all that to say, you can't just give something away and expect for that to engender loyalty.

You have to be strategic about how you do it. Ideally, from a restaurant perspective, you're collecting data in the process of giving away that free item. A lot of restaurants have apps now where that they use to collect information on what you order, how frequently you're visiting, and they can use that to make predictions about their business.

I think a lot of chains would do well to realize that you can't just stay the same for a very long time, which I think is what Red Lobster did. You know, the restaurants weren't getting remodeled. The menu wasn't undergoing a lot of changes. They didn't adapt successfully.

super quickly to the new world of takeout. There's a lot of lessons to be learned, I think. And I think there are chains that are learning those lessons and that are realizing like, oh, if we want to be relevant, we can't just rely on people's 20-year-old nostalgia for us. Amy McCarthy is a reporter for Eater, where she covers dining pop culture.

at all of your favorite chain restaurants. You can read her reporting at eater.com. Amy, thanks so much for joining us on Business Wars. Thank you so much. Coming up, we're bringing Red Lobster home. Is this the best biscuit in the world? No, but that's not what we're looking for. Sporked host Jordan Myrick helps us put some of the chain's most iconic grocery store items to the test. Stay with us.

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For decades, chain restaurants have offered frozen versions of our favorite dine-in items. Red Robin's Onion Rings, TGI Friday's Jalapeno Peppers, P.F. Chang's Orange Chicken, and, of course, those famous Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster, all within arm's reach at the local grocery store. It's a small part of their business, less than 10% of total revenue in some cases, but it's also one that's expected to grow, according to the trade publication Restaurant Business Online.

All this leaves us with one very important question to address. How do those frozen isle replicas stack up against the originals?

Well, to help us investigate, we brought in Jordan Myrick, a writer for the website Sport, where they rank all your favorite food items for sale. Name an item at the grocery store and you can bet they've tried it. Today, Jordan is walking us through the frozen selections from Red Lobster to see if Cheddar Bay Biscuits, among others, can be just as good at home as they are at the restaurant. Jordan Myrick, welcome to Business Wars. Thank you so much for having me. How did you get involved with Sport and the food journalism business, I suppose?

Sure. So I'm actually a comedian by trade. I went to NYU for acting. I have a BFA in drama. And because of that, I obviously have worked in a thousand restaurants in basically every position you could ever work in.

And I've always, yeah, I've always loved food too. And when I saw this job, they were specifically looking for people who had writing experience, who had on-camera experience. Oh, that's awesome. Who were interested in food. So someone sent it to me and they were like, it feels like they're just looking for you. For you, yeah. And I applied. Oh, that's awesome. I mean, it doesn't get more perfect than that, really. It really felt serendipitous. Okay, so what kinds of items do you tend to rank at sport? Literally anything you can buy at the grocery store that's like a product.

product. So we wouldn't rank at this point, we would not rank like Kroger broccoli versus Publix broccoli or whatever, or like cuts of meat necessarily, but like anything you can buy in the freezer, deli meats, fridge section, cereals, anything you can really think of that you can eat. Got it. And you use a ranking system? Right.

We do. We rank it at a 10. We give them sporks to stay on theme. And we try to keep things in mind. So obviously, taste is a big thing. But we also try to keep in things like accessibility, availability, ease of preparation for certain items, price point. So we try to really give. Normally, we'll do like a top 10, top 5 each.

top three depending on what the product is. So what about these chain restaurant grocery selections? Have you ever bought these items on your own without, you know, trying to do a back-to-back taste test or anything like that? You know, I'll be honest.

I'll be honest, not really for the most part because I'm like, I'll just go to the restaurant. I don't need to have them at home. But I also am very lucky. I live in Los Angeles. I used to live in New York. Like a lot of things are accessible to me. I remember the first time I tried the Taco Bell, like make your own Taco Bell at home kits. It tastes great. But ultimately my review was like, this is stupid. This costs a hundred times more than just going to Taco Bell because the kit has like

a corn tortilla shell and like the nacho cheese sauce, but you still have to buy meat and lettuce and sour cream and all these things. I was like, why would you purchase this? It does not make sense to me. And so many of the comments were like, well, I live nowhere near a Taco Bell. The closest Taco Bell to me is an hour away. And I was like, oh yeah, that makes sense. Not everybody has access to the same things that

I have access to in a major city. And that was very eye-opening. So I think that's who these products are for. Where does this come from, this idea of restaurants having grocery store offerings? I know it's been around for a long time, but it seemed like it really took off during COVID. Absolutely. I think, yeah, no one was able to leave their house and go to P.F. Chang's. So we were all trying to replicate any sense of normalcy at home. And so I think we saw a big kind of boom in those at that period of time.

And I think, yeah, now that people are out and about again, I know for me, I'll try anything. I'll do anything. I was stuck in my house for so long. I'll do whatever. Well, Jordan, since we've spent the past couple of episodes talking about Red Lobster, I want to get to the bottom of something. Is Red Lobster...

just as good at home. We wanted your professional opinion on how some of their frozen options compare to the real thing. What do you say we go ahead and give this a go? I'm excited. All righty. I know you've worked hard on this. What do you have in front of you? Can you tell us about your spread? All right. I have the Cheddar Bay Biscuit Shrimp, the Cheddar Bay Biscuits themselves, and then a Garlic Parmesan Stuffed Shrimp.

Hmm. What do you say we go with the Parmesan crusted garlic and herb stuffed shrimp? Now, what did it take to prepare these? I put these in my air fryer for about two

10, 12 minutes. And I cooked them until they just exploded a little bit because I cannot seem to not explode something a little bit in my air fryer. And I know you're maybe like, well, why didn't you just do it again, do it better? But I think that's relatable. So I want to give people the real experience that they're probably experiencing at home. And we're all exploding something just a little bit in our

Blowing it up in the air fryer. All right. So the formal description here is stuffed with garlic herbs and cream cheese surrounded by a Parmesan crust breading. Red Lobster suggests these are good with salad. You ready to give it a bite? Sure. Absolutely. It really makes me laugh. Nothing about these is giving salad. I will say that. Okay.

I'm giving you such an ASMR moment. I'll say. I mean, it's delicious. First of all, nothing with cream cheese has ever been bad. I feel like I can say that confidently in all my years doing this. It's shrimp. It's crunchy on the outside. It's extremely salty in a way where you might die if you have more than like four. Really? That's probably a serving size. So that's fine. You're not eating these every day. Like Red Lobster said, put them on a salad, I guess.

But the inside is so creamy and rich. They're really crunchy. I think it's pretty good. Sounded crunchy. When you bit into it, it really did sound crunchy. But it also sounds like, from your description, pretty heavy. Yes, absolutely. This is like an appetizer you're bringing out for girls' night or maybe a football game where everyone's coming over to watch. Like, you're not—you're probably not eating these for dinner every night. No.

Now, as I understand it, this is not on the regular Red Lobster menu. This is exclusively for grocery stores. But I guess the brand's trying to use its identity to sell new frozen items. You think these could make it in the restaurants themselves?

Absolutely. I think that's the most bizarre thing about these products because I think the next shrimp that we're trying is also not on the menu. Maybe it is. Maybe it's new. I'm not sure. But I don't think either one of these are on the Red Lobster menu. And my question is why? Why would you make a product that's not on your menu? And I totally get what you're saying about branding and just using that name to make more seafood products. It completely makes sense. But...

I think these could easily be on the menu and be really delicious, but I also think that they could put things that are already on the menu in the freezer section. So I have a lot of questions. Okay. So I know that you do the rankings here. How many sporks would you give this? I would say I'd give these like eight sporks. I think they're a fun little appetizer. I'm not going to reach for them every day, but I think they add a little bit of pizzazz. I think you could also tell someone that these were homemade and they would believe you. Wow. All right. Well, eight sporks for the parmesan-crusted garlic and herb-stuffed shrimp.

All right, let's move to the second item here. What about those Cheddar Bay Biscuit shrimp? You have that? I do. I'm going to take a bite right now. That sounded less crunchy than the first. Okay. Ultimately, I think it's delicious because it just tastes like a Cheddar Bay Biscuit, which is hands down one of the most delicious things in the world. Certainly the best free restaurant bread you can get. Yeah. And you're really getting that flavor. Also, the shrimp is nice and moist inside.

It does do a little bit of that thing when you eat a biscuit, especially a chain restaurant biscuit, if you're familiar with Popeye's biscuits, where it kind of becomes a little bit of a paste in your mouth that sticks to your teeth a little bit. Yeah, I'm getting a little bit of that. But to be honest, I don't hate it. I'm like moving through it and the taste is good enough that I'm completely happy. I'm going to honestly do a nine on these. Really? You like these better? Really good. Yeah, I think that they're a little less dry than...

which I think is nice. But eating both side by side, I think this is a little bit better. I also think it's just more reminiscent of Red Lobster. So if I'm specifically buying a Red Lobster product, I'm prepping it.

I'm probably looking for a Red Lobster experience close to what I've had in the restaurant. And I think this feels similar to the things they sell. And I also think it's so fun that it's a biscuit coating. I don't think I've ever seen biscuit coated shrimp anywhere. It seems like a thing that I would have come up with when I was drunk. And I love that. So this is not on the regular Red Lobster menu. You think it should be?

Yes, absolutely. It's crazy. I know they have so many biscuits back there. They should just be doing this. Hey, speaking of biscuits, you want to dig into some Cheddar Bay biscuits? I would absolutely love to. All right. You got yours in front of you? I do. I spent...

Too long, I think. I think these are supposed to be made in about, what, about 25, 30 minutes. And I felt like I spent longer than that making mine. But I'll tell you, it was so cozy smelling those biscuits warming up and heating up the butter and mixing in all of those herbs and everything. But I will say one other thing, by the way, when I was preparing mine. When I pulled the dough out of the box...

The eight little lumps were frozen together and I couldn't get them apart. So I had to like put them in the microwave for about, you know, I don't know, 20, 30 seconds and then take a little chopping thing and chop them up to get them back into the shape. Interesting. Mine were also connected, but they broke apart in my experience easily, but I'm also extremely strong. So I think that that's good to know. Okay. All right. All right. You ready to give yours a bite? Absolutely. Here we go. Three, two, one.

Yeah, exactly what you said. It's so tasty. I think aesthetically, it's not an exact one-to-one of the restaurant for the one that I'm looking at. The restaurant ones are a little bit bigger. The tops are more kind of craggly a little bit is how I would describe them. These are much more uniform, which makes sense. But these take significantly less time than the boxed

red lobster biscuit mix. So I will never go back to buying that again. And I will always buy this from here on out. And I do think frozen in general is such an underrated grocery store biscuit preparation. I'm originally from the South. My family's from the South. Me too. And in a rush, my family always did biscuits from the freezer. And there's a couple of brands that do it and it yields such a great product. But I don't see people outside of the South talking about biscuits in the freezer very often. Everybody's using the tube.

Okay. So what would you rank these Cheddar Bay biscuits? How many sporks? I guess I'd give them like a nine or a 9.5. Whoa. Wow. That's some confidence there. Yeah. I think it's very similar to what you get at the store. And that's a big thing for me is that is this the best biscuit in the world?

No, but that's not what we're looking for. And that's not what people are going into the grocery store necessarily looking for. They're looking for something that tastes really good, is easy to make, is accessible. And I think Red Lobster promises something similar to what you get in the restaurant and what you've known and loved for years. And I think you get that. Jordan, I have to ask, given that you write for Sport, you know, ranking and talking about all these grocery store products,

What do you do when you want to get away from it all? What's the break for you? Yes. Food consumes most of my life because it's such a big social element. And then I am at Sporked. I also host a comedy cooking competition show. So a lot of what I do is all revolved around food. And when I need a break, I will have a bowl of miso soup.

That is the thing where I'm like, that feels so rejuvenating to me. So relaxing, like a huge glass of ice cold water and a bowl of miso soup.

A palate cleanser, miso soup. Yes, absolutely. Jordan Myrick is a writer for Sporked, where they rank, review, and discuss all the latest grocery store products. You can read their reporting at sporked.com. Jordan, it's been a real pleasure to get to say hello, and thanks so much for sharing a little bit of this wonderful food with us on Business Wars. Thank you so much for having me. It's been wonderful.

Coming up, one woman decides she's unhappy with the existing shapewear on the market and creates a product that redefines the whole category. But then Kim Kardashian thinks she can launch a company that does it even better. That's next time on Business Wars.

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