This Is The Only New England State Where You'll Find A Red Lobster
Red Lobster is having a tough time of it lately, but in New England, the seafood chain never really caught on to begin with. That really isn't surprising, of course, seeing as New England is awash in amazing seafood, with lobster in particular being a local specialty that's much more affordable there than it is in the rest of the country. But many big chain restaurants manage to maintain a few locations that survive even when competing with the local specialty. There are several Olive Garden restaurants in New York City, for example, and plenty of Taco Bell joints in Los Angeles. While the food may not be quite as good, the low prices offered by these chains are often enough to attract steady traffic. But Red Lobster has only managed to hold on in one corner of New England: Connecticut.
That's right, there are only four Red Lobster's left in New England, and all of them are in The Constitution State. Three of the four locations are in the southwestern corner of Connecticut, which is often considered as much a part of the New York City metro area as it is New England. Those three are in Bridgeport, Danbury, and the New Haven area, while the only Red Lobster that reaches further into the region is outside of Hartford in the town of Wethersfield. But this wasn't always the case — there used to be a few Red Lobsters in Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, as well. So what happened? Does New England just hate Red Lobster's endless shrimp (something we tried and lived to review)? Read on for the lowdown on Red Lobster's struggles in New England.
Red Lobster has never been able to compete with local New England seafood
After the chain's bankruptcy in 2024, Red Lobster began shuttering hundreds of locations. At its height, Red Lobster had around 700 restaurants, but that dropped by over a hundred in just a year as the seafood restaurant struggled with corporate mismanagement and an ill-fated attempt to make endless shrimp permanent — the deal ended up being too popular, leading to huge losses. But the closures in New England actually predate that downsizing. The chain's restaurants in Maine closed in 1998 and 2001 in Rhode Island, while a few more in Massachusetts have been closed for a number of years now.
It turns out there was just always a mismatch between Red Lobster and New England. "Having grown up in New England and moved to Central Texas, I saw two very different opinions on Red Lobster," Hacker News user Jeff Wask said following Red Lobster's bankruptcy filing in 2024. "It's 100% correct that in NE or anywhere near the coast Red Lobster was always considered inferior. The local competition and the ability of non-chain restaurants to 'buy off the dock' meant you could always find better options that maybe even cost less."
It's a miracle that the Rhode Island location managed to stay open for a decade, considering that it was met with several dismissive reviews from local critics. A reviewer from The Providence Journal "had to visit three times before being able to write a lukewarm critique about dishes not prepared as described on the menu," the outlet recalled following the branch's closure. Hopefully the new CEO running Red Lobster in the wake of the bankruptcy has learned some lessons from past mistakes and the chain will bounce back — just don't expect to see new locations in New England anytime soon.