For Annette Kasper, the Red Lobster on Maple Road will always hold cherished memories. Every year on her son Ian’s birthday, she took him there for dinner after school. He liked to eat the rotund cheddar bay biscuits.
“Every kid loves the rolls there,” Kasper said.
Maureen Rivera, owner of McPartlan’s Corner and the Fairdale Banquet Center, also used to take her young family to Red Lobster. Not necessarily because the food was “high-end,” but because the convenience couldn’t be beat.
“It was quick, close,” Rivera said. “And they had good rolls.”
As of May 13, Red Lobster and its cheesy, buttery biscuits left the region when the three local restaurants – in Buffalo, Amherst and Hamburg – closed abruptly. The 56-year-old national chain closed dozens of its 650 restaurants this week and is expected to file for bankruptcy before Memorial Day, according to the Wall Street Journal.
And it isn’t the only sit-down restaurant chain to leave the Buffalo area in recent years.
TGI Friday’s has only two restaurants left in Erie County. The downtown Buffalo location within the Holiday Inn Express remains open, but is currently up for lease. Manager Kenneth Blendowski said he has not heard any official word of its closing.
Ruby Tuesday closed its last local restaurant during the pandemic. Friendly’s closed its four remaining Erie County locations in 2019. Pizza Hut closed its 17 Buffalo-area restaurants in 2020, then switched business models, and opened six takeout-only restaurants locally in the past year.
It begs the questions: Is it them or is it us? Why are so many chain restaurants leaving Buffalo?
Experts point to a cocktail of reasons behind the flight of nationally owned casual sit-down restaurants, such as Red Lobster.
“The changing competitive landscape, combined with some poor management decisions, combined with the inflationary environment and rising labor costs … it just creates a toxic, perfect…
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