The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Damola Adamolekun On Being The CEO Of 'Red Lobster' Saving Company From Bankruptcy, PF Chang's +More

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Damola Adamolekun To Discuss Being The CEO Of 'Red Lobster' Saving Company From Bankruptcy, PF Chang's. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. I see you waiting to get your ass kicked. Let's go. Let's go. CEO of Red Lobster.

OK, what else? Let's go. Demola. OK, here come the punch. Adam Alokan. Hey, that was good here come the punch. Adam O'Loken. Hey, that was good. What did he get? I was an eight out of 10, man.

You almost got it. Almost got it. How do you pronounce the last name? Adam O'Laken. Adam O'Laken. You were very close, man. That's a good effort. How are we doing?

Can we give our brother a water, please, please? You want another one? Regular water. Look, he gave you a biscuit. Get him a water. Big Mac, he got a mouthful of cheddar cheese biscuits. You know, it's crazy, Demola. We interview a lot of people.

And people always ask, you know, who do you want to interview? And I'd never known the answer. But then I see certain people on the schedule, and I'm like, damn, I would like to talk to this guy. And when I saw your name on the schedule, I was like, CEO of Red Lobster? Yeah. Yes, I'd like to talk to him.

It's a pleasure to be here. You guys are doing amazing things. It's good to be on. Well, let's start from the beginning. How did you get into food? Because you just weren't the CEO of Red Lobster, you were CEO of P.F. Chang. So how did you get your start into this restaurant business?

You're only 36. Yeah, I was gonna say, you look young. Yeah. Look, I mean, really I started by waiting tables when I was young, when I was in high school. And you're from? I'm from I'm Nigerian originally, but I went to high school in Maryland. OK. Nice. Nice. Yes. You know, doing the the waiter slash runner thing in high school.

But in this current track, you know, I started working in finance when I was in college. I started interning at Goldman Sachs when I was 19. So 17 years ago. Wow. So I got my first internship at Goldman. I was atning at Goldman Sachs when I was 19, so 17 years ago. So I got my first internship at Goldman. I was at Brown playing football and worked at Goldman for four years and then worked at a private equity firm called TPG

and then went to business school and then worked at a hedge fund here in New York. The reason I got into restaurants is because I did a restaurant deal. We bought P.F. Chang's in 2019. Who was we? I worked for John Paulson who's a famous billionaire investor in New York. His firm is called Paulson and Company. So I was working at a hedge fund and we do a lot of things.

The hedge funds big. It's you know billions of dollars and we do a lot of different things but one of the things that we did that I suggested was to buy P.F. Chang's. It was up for sale. So I pitched it to the firm, they agreed, but I led the deal, this is 2019 now. So it was up for sale, I thought it was an interesting thing, good brand, great history, great product. I thought we could do a lot of new things with it, we could add delivery, we could remodel the restaurants,

we could make it more interesting, make it more relevant, cool. And it was all going pretty well, and then COVID hit, right, in 2020. So my big restaurant deal, we put hundreds of millions of dollars into it, and it went south during COVID, like everything else did. All the restaurants were closed.

Just curious, how much was PF Chang selling for back then? We never released it, but there's an article that quotes something around 700 million. It's in the ballpark. Okay. So they didn't make their money back, clearly though. No, we did, but that's the thing, I had to go save it. So in COVID, it looked like we weren't gonna,

it looked like a bad deal, and it was my deal, so that's on me, right? So it wasn't looking good. We lost a CEO during COVID, and I had to go step in to sort of rescue the situation. Now the year before that, I was chief strategy officer. So I'd been there every week. I was flying to Scottsdale where that company is headquartered.

I was flying back to New York. So I was running the company kind of as chief strategy officer. And then I was at the hedge fund. And then when COVID happened, we lost a CEO. They asked me to be CEO. So that's when I stepped in again, because it's my deal. I'm responsible for the outcome. Right.

So I went in there to try to salvage things and get us through COVID, which we did, and then we grew from there, we ended up being a really good deal. But not without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears for a few years and getting through it. So that ended up well. So you took the salt and pepper prawns off the menu.

That was not me. Oh, that wasn't you, I was just making sure. All right, yeah. I was gone by that. I got so many questions, man. Number one, that wasn't you, I was just making sure. Alright, go ahead. I was gonna say that. Okay. I got so many questions man. Number one, you know, you said you. Whatever you guys wanna talk about.

You got the, you said you started at 19 doing what? I got my first internship at Goldman Sachs. Who puts those seeds in your mind at such a young age to say this is what I wanna do at 19 years old? It's a good question. So when I was even younger than that, when I was in high school, I played football and I was trying to go to a good school, but at the same time I was trying to play football in college, I ended up playing at Brown. But before that I won a speech contest.

I had an English teacher that was like, join the speech and debate team. You talk too much, I think is what she was trying to say. But I joined the speech and debate team you talk too much I think is what she was trying to say But I joined the speech and debate team and I won a couple things I won the state championship for debate then I won a speech Contest which paid me ten thousand dollars right it was a scholarship And it was the most money I'd ever had at that point. I'm like okay. We made it right like And I decided I wanted to invest that money that's why I started with investing So I got a bunch of money when I was in high school. I decided wanted to invest What does that mean back then everybody's doing real estate. It's like 05, 06. Everybody's trying to buy real estate. So I thought I could do that.

It wasn't enough money I learned quickly, but, uh, but I couldn't buy stocks. So I got into stocks first and I opened a portfolio and I just started, I read, there's a, there's a website called the Motley fool. I think it's still around, but that's what I used to read. I'd read anything about Buffett and I read, there's a website called The Motley Fool. I think it's still around, but that's what I used to read. I'd read anything about Buffett. And you can buy stocks with $100, you can buy stocks with $10,000, you can buy stocks with millions of dollars, right?

It's just, you buy more of them. So I learned that and sort of trained myself and asked a bunch of questions of people who I knew that were doing that sort of thing. So when I got to Brown, I joined the investment club. Now it's an Ivy League school, there's a bunch of people who, you know, their parents work in that world,

they grew up around it, they know a lot, right? So I learned a lot quickly, and then I applied for Goldman. And you know, you gotta pretend a little bit, right? So I studied. I didn't come from that world, but I studied, and I showed up to these interviews, and I got the internship. When you say pretend, what do you mean?

Well, you don't, you know. You mean you lied about something? No, there's people that are born and raised to do this. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. And they're taught at a young age. You know, I was teaching myself in high school and college. When I say pretend, it's you study enough to be dangerous, to come into an interview and know what you're talking about.

Know what you're talking about, yeah. Fake it till you make it. It's not faking it, it's teaching, it's becoming the thing you need to be. It's becoming the thing you need to be. It's becoming the person you need to be. So pretend is the wrong word. But it's becoming. I would say preparing.

Preparing. You need to recognize that you don't, who you are now isn't who you're gonna be ultimately, and you need to take steps towards your goals. That's what you know and that's how you are, both. So what you know is studying books, studying how to invest, studying stocks. How you are is like working in Goldman Sachs is hard.

It's, you need discipline, you need work ethic, you need curiosity, you need to be able to communicate, you need to be able to defend your ideas, negotiate, like all these things. So there's skills that you have to develop in yourself and there's knowledge you need to be able to defend your ideas, negotiate, like all these things. So there's skills that you have to develop in yourself and there's knowledge you need to acquire, both. And when you do those things, you can be dangerous, right? You can show up to something and stand up and get it,

make it happen. So was it your parents, like a father figure, a mother figure, like who pushed you in that direction? Like you just- Because even in high school, you talking about you invested the money. Like. Yeah, I was making it. Listen, it's oh six, everybody was making money.

All stocks were just going up back then. I thought I was a genius, but it was just the market. Well, yeah. What were you doing to the child? Like that's what I'm trying to figure out. I mean, so I was born in Nigeria. My dad's a doctor. Okay.

He's a neurologist. Okay. My family is all about academics. Got you, got you, got you. So the idea to be like to try to achieve has just been in my life since I was young. Absolutely. It's, you know, what are your grades? You got 6 As and 1 B, what's up with that B?

Like, let's get that to an A. That was kind of my childhood. And then we were immigrants to America. We moved when I was nine. And coming here for us, I mean, my parents did a lot to bring us here. It's a very complicated, difficult process. And it took years, right? It took like five years for them to do that. So I think- I don't know if you should be saying that

at a time like this. Yeah, I would. Well, you know, there's different ways to immigrate. So this is a skilled visa, is what my dad used. And it's a legitimate process, it just takes a long time. There's a bunch of tests, there's a bunch of- They don't care, you're a successful black man, you're too smart. They can get you out of here.

So how did you get to Red Lobster? Red Lobster? So you know the P.F. Chang's deal went well. And you know it won me some plaudits in the industry. Because it was difficult, right? And we made it happen. And then after that, I connected with the folks who had lent money to Red Lobster before the company went bankrupt. So they were in line to own it coming out of bankruptcy. There's a group called Fortress. And so they asked me first to consult, to provide advice.

Like, you know, you just spent four years running a business that was in distress, similar to this. You know, what do you think of this situation? So I was advising them at first, and then it turned into, they asked me to come run it. Basically, I presented a plan.

They were like, we like your plan, please come execute it for us, right? So I took over as CEO coming out of bankruptcy in September. That's what we've been doing. You know when I first heard that story, I was on the radio acting like I knew what I was talking about and I was just like, I know exactly what Red Lobster should be doing. And I felt like Red Lobster should, you know, scale down from being a fine dining establishment and be more like Chipotle.

Like you could go in there and you know, you can get your lobster and shrimp pasta right from the bar or whatever the items is just right there from the bar Just make it like a smaller more Chipotle like establishment as opposed to a fine dining restaurant hmm, well the thing about Chipotle is they have a Well, so your point about being able to get food conveniently is an important one There should be options and there should be ways where you get things you need quickly For example our delivery business that should feel fast casualish where you get things you need quickly. For example, our delivery business. That should feel fast casual-ish, where you put in an order, it comes quickly, et cetera.

The way the company's set up has a cost structure that you can run it like Chipotle. For example, our restaurants, they're 9,000, 10,000 square feet. Chipotle's are 1,500 square feet, maybe 2,000 max. So you have a real estate footprint that you can run on Chipotle revenue per unit, right? You have to do more. The food we serve, we serve lobster and crab,

you can't sell that at Chipotle price points because you pay too much for those products. So there's structural differences in the businesses that would prevent that. But that said, some of the things Chipotle is good at, you can be better at, right? Like delivery, digital, speed of service. Those are things that people care about and definitely you can learn from. So how do you say- Hold on, remember I started off by saying, acting like I knew what I was talking about.

I just said, I knew. I just said, okay. I said acting like I knew what I was talking about. So how do you say Red Lobster now, right? Well, so the thing is you have to lean into what made it successful in the first place, right? Like what do people love about Red Lobster? There's reason it is what it is. The biscuits.

Biscuits for sure. The biscuits and I also think a lot of us from where we grew up, that was, you know, we went for graduation. We went for celebratory type of things. That was the reward. Yeah, the feeling. It felt like five star fine dining. It felt like five star. There you go. Until you started making-

That's it. But until all these other restaurants started popping up. Exactly. Now, you know, people look down on Red Lobster when it comes to celebratory. They'll go to, you know, a P.F. Chang's, they'll go to a Tao, they'll go to an expensive steakhouse because they don't look at Red Lobster as that anymore.

I'm proud you included P.F. Chang's. I think that's our way. I wouldn't put P.F. Chang's in there. No, P.F. Chang's is P.F. Chang's. You put me saying that. I put P.F. Chang's in there. But, you know. That's good. So how do you change that way of thinking?

So, first, it used to be, Red Lobster was the first company to take these high-end seafood products across the country. It was the first place you could get lobster, get crab. For a lot of people, it was their first experience. I went to Red Lobster in Springfield, Illinois when I used to live there, when I was nine or ten, and I remember that, right? So I think a lot of people have these memories,

after church on Sundays, important dinners, graduation, et cetera. Now you can get these products in different places, but we're still the only company at scale that serves lobster and crab. And by the way, lobster and crab are wild-caught products. You can't farm raise them. So they catch them on boats.

We buy 25% of the lobster that's caught on boats in North America. We buy a quarter of it. Wow. We buy a quarter of the crab that's caught by virtue of our size and scale. We can get the best product, which we do. So the lobster you get at Red Lobster is as good as lobster you'll get anywhere. But people don't know that. No, not at all.

And so there's a communication aspect to it that need to let people know this is the best product you can get for lobster, for crab. That's number one. Number two, you need to give people a reason. You mentioned Chipotle. If we're not gonna be priced as Chipotle, then we need to offer something that Chipotle doesn't offer. And what that is, is called service and hospitality.

Like you need to come in, you need to feel like you're welcome. You need to feel like you're a guest. You need to be taken care of. you need to get a connection with your server. So it's food and it's services where we win. And ambiance because a lot of these restaurants just don't look good. But that's the thing, relapses, relapses feels like McDonald's at times when you walk in.

The floors look very cold, the place looks cold. That's the right word, outdated. I did a remodel project at P.F. Chang's, where we remodeled 80% of the restaurants. If you go to them now, it's red, gold, black, it looks cool. So that's what we did that. And so this needs something similar,

and we're working on that. That takes a bit of time. You have to design it, you have to scope it, you have to test it, you have to prove the results, then you have to raise the money, then you have to go. So that takes time. What you can do now is improve service. We launched something we're calling Red Carpet Hospitality.

We launched that a couple weeks ago. If you go and ask a server in Red Lobster about it, they'll tell you about it. Red stands for recognize, engage, and delight. When people walk in, you need to recognize them. As soon as they walk in, there should be somebody smiling at the toast stand to greet them. You see somebody, you're within 10 feet of them, you recognize them, within 4 feet you speak to them. We call it the 10-4 rule.

You make sure that when people need to go to the bathroom, you walk them there. You don't point to the bathroom. You escort them. You make sure that you're connecting with them, you're talking with them, you're asking questions. So we're training these behavioral patterns because that's something you can do today, right? And then trying to highlight the quality of the food

and introduce some new things like the lobster rolls that are fun, that are interesting. So food and service, and then the third point for sure is ambiance. We fix the things we can fix quickly, like the music is better. If you go to a Red Lobster now, you'll notice the music is better.

And you'll notice there's small things like we put the market prices on the lobster, we put the liners on the tables. There's small things Red Lobster now, you'll notice the music is better. And you'll notice there's small things like we put the market prices on the lobster. We put the liners on the tables. There's small things you can do now, but comprehensively there needs to be a remodel, right? And that's something that we'll do in the future. I think that y'all have got a great foundation because the biggest thing is that nobody's ever said

the food was wack. Even to this day, you bought some cheddar cheese biscuits and everybody went crazy, you know what I'm saying? You think about episodes of the Boondocks when Riley was going bought some cheddar cheese biscuits and everybody went crazy, you know what I'm saying? You think about episodes of the Boom Docs when Riley was going crazy over cheddar cheese biscuits. Lobster and shrimp pasta's always been my favorite dish. I would fuck that up right now. Like right now.

Next time I'll bring it for you. But you know what, like you said, the one reason I stopped going to Red Lobster is because I always felt like Red Lobster's food wasn't as good as a lot of these other places. But now that you're telling me that they all got from the same place, I just myself felt like it was,

maybe it's a process type of thing. And if I go to this restaurant, maybe their quality's better. I never felt like your food was like. No, the food is great. And especially again, lobster and crab. Cause again, we buy most of it. We buy more than every country except a couple.

Japan with all their sushi buys a lot of lobster and crab. And I think China's the only one that buys more than we do. So just because of that we get the best product, we have scale, we can demand things, we can insist on standards, which we do. So product-wise it's there, but there's a communication that needs to happen. And I'll tell you something, like going through what the company went through, the bankruptcy was damaging in a lot of ways, but one of the things that raises the question, like, is they mess with the product? And the answer is no, right?

Because that's one thing you can't mess with. And coming out of it, I just want to get people thinking about Red Lobster how they used to, which is like a fun time, a great meal, great service, great hospitality. Now we need to deliver on that. If I say great hospitality, people go and don't have a good experience, then that makes me a liar. But we're seeing the results. So before we launched it, we track what we call a sentiment score, which is net positive

versus negative sentiment. Right? Like, what are people saying that it's good versus what are people saying that's bad? It was 30 when I took over. This last month it was 60, so it doubled. Right? And that's after we launched these programs, we got people, because they want,

people want to have a good experience at work. These waiters and waitresses, it's better for them if they can enjoy themselves and talk to a guest and they've given license to do that. So we basically like let them, let them free on that. They gave them some direction, some coaching, some training, and you see the result. So yeah, when you go to Red Lobster Next, you'll see,

it's gonna feel different. The people are gonna take care of you different. There's other when you go to Red Lobster next, you'll see. It's gonna feel different. The people are gonna take care of you different. There's other things we need to do that'll take time. I agree with you on the remodels, but we're starting where we can. And what about franchise? I'm sorry, go ahead. There was a list that women had put together, right?

Of places that they don't wanna be taken on the first date. Red Lobster was number 11. 11. Yes, it was number 11. So did you see that list? No, I didn't see that. You looking like you didn't see it. I'm gonna show you right after we finish. But, would you say that Red Lobster

is a valid place for a first date? I mean, lobster on a first date, can you beat that? Mmm. Lobster on a first date? You wanna share some Maine lobster, twin lobster tails, rock lobster, Maine lobster? No, that's right, okay.

I mean, you tell me. But also on that list, it was P. man. That's right. Okay On that list it was a pf Chang's and Cheesecake Factory everything was on that I think yeah It's there's these are chain restaurants. There's something about like chain verse independent now if you make the chain experience feel like an independent like each restaurants its own and they have like a culture and feel like an independent, like each restaurant's its own and they have like a culture and a personality, then it doesn't feel like a chain restaurant. Yeah.

And there's restaurants that do that really well. And we're working to become that. But look, if you go on a date and have some cherry bay biscuits, some lobster tails, some bear-eyed crab, people are gonna have a great time. I wanted to know about franchising. I know most of the stores are company owned, but do they

still allow certain people to own franchising or not at all anymore? So all the company all the stores in the US are company owned. There's still some franchise internationally but it's a smaller group it's about 30 units abroad. Why is that good or bad? Is it good if somebody that owns it in that area or you do you think it's better because it's company owned and everything is corporately, everything is stamped, everything is the same way? Well, it's trade-offs, right?

And so I'll just speak broadly about the franchising model versus the corporate owned and operated model. When you own and operate your restaurants, the benefit is you get to control them more closely. So what I just talked about, red carpet hospitality, I rolled it out in our restaurants with my COO and my team and we presented to the people who manage the the rest the level above the restaurants the people who they report to the people at the

restaurants we can we rolled it out quickly you can do that get everybody in a call this is what we're doing if it's a franchise business I need to come convince a bunch of franchisees a to agree that it's a good idea got you be to want to fund it this case is there's no funding required but it might need money and they had to put up the cash right whereas you know if it's a good idea. Got you. B to, one, to fund it. This case is there's no funding required, but it might need money and they have to put up the cash, right? Whereas if we run it, we can just make that decision. So it's easier to do things when you control the business. It's easier to improve and control quality because you'll have some franchises that do

great, some franchises that don't. Some franchises that have great hospitality, some that don't, right? So it's easier to manage. Now, the benefit of a franchise model is you have partners that are running smaller businesses. So we have 545 restaurants. If you had 10 franchises, it'd feel like 1050 restaurant chains, right?

Which is easier to manage on some level. So there's trade-offs. What you'll see is a lot of fast casual will do franchise models because they're easier to run. Like it's easy to make a pizza. So it's easy to franchise pizza restaurants, right? You put it in an oven for X many minutes. And so they can do that and control the quality,

because it's just not that hard. When it gets complicated, you have to be careful. Not that you can't do it, but you just have to be careful. Make sure that the people you're franchising to are, can run it and will kind of follow the direction. Gotcha. Yeah, I got a million, I got more questions. You run a franchise, you franchise a few restaurants.

Yeah, Crystal's in South Carolina. Me and my wife bought a five-up. But I got so many questions for you, but then I was just sitting there thinking about, Red Lobster, how do you keep people feeling the nostalgia of Red Lobster? Because as I'm sitting here and I'm listening to you talk, I'm just thinking about all the different memories I've had in Red Lobster. As I'm sitting here and I'm listening to you talk, I'm just thinking about all the different memories

I've had in Red Lobster. So how do you keep this nostalgia of that but then still move people forward? That's why I love the brand. That's part of why. So when we bought P.F. Chang's, I used to tell people, like you ask anybody about P.F. Chang's, they'll be like, oh, I love P.F. Chang's.

I used to go there all the time. I haven't been in a while. And same with Red Lobster, even to a higher degree, I think. Especially in our community. A lot of people have these amazing memories. And so that's a good starting point. So if one is to redeliver on the promise of the initial brand, right?

Which is great food, great service, and an affordable price. And so we need to deliver that, number one. Which is red carpet hospitality The food menu stuff like we're working on all that and then it's inviting people back, right? So that's a marketing challenge like talking about it. It's letting people know that it's different. It's got new leadership. We're doing new things and we're trying to get the word out on that and then and then it builds a People come in with good memories trying to see what it is And if they have a great experience,

then you snap back into it. People basically have like, they'll have like three, four, five restaurants in their minds that they go to. It's dinner Thursday night, dinner Friday night. They've got like a list in your head, everybody does. Do I go to this one or this one or that one? So what you're trying to do is get on that list.

And you do that by getting people to try you and then delivering. And then you get on, you do that enough times, then you're on the list. Then you become a place they think about. And you can increase frequency, right? Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there? We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air balloons and birds. But what if there's something else, something much more ominous that appears under

the cover of night, silent, unseen, watching? They may be right above your car late one night as you cruise down the road, or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home. Drones. Or are they? We used the word drone because it was comfortable to other people. One minute it was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh that is beyond creepy. Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically?

Yes, absolutely. Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The More Better the Merrier, title of your podcast. All your old Brooklyn Nine-Nine friends are appearing on your favorite podcast, More Better. Don't miss Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars and show hosts Stephanie Beatriz and Melissa Fumero

as they welcome their friends and former castmates back to laugh about old times and swap some stories. This week, it's Gina Linetti herself, the talented Chelsea Peretti. Remember when we were in that scene where you guys were just supposed to hug and I was standing there? I was like, can I also hug them? Then next week, the Nine-Nine nonsense continues as the more better amigas sit down with Joe Lattrullio, aka Detective Charles Boyle.

There'll be more laughs, more conversation, more stories from the set, and more, more better. Don't miss a minute. You felt safe enough to throw out a bad idea, right? I mean, that is the key because you're definitely not throwing out good ideas all the time. I mean, that's the key because you're definitely not throwing out good ideas all the time. I mean, that's just not how it works. Listen to more better with Stephanie and Melissa on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is John Cameron Mitchell, and my new fiction podcast series, Cancellation Island, stars Holly Hunter as Karen, a wellness influencer who launches a rehab for the recently canceled. In the future, we will all be canceled for 15 minutes. But don't worry, we'll take you from broke to woke or your money back. Cancellation Island's revolutionary rehab therapies like Bad Touch Football, Anti-Racism Spin Class, and Mand mandatory Ayahuasca ceremonies are designed to force the cancel

to confront their worst impulses. But everything starts to fall apart when people start disappearing. Karyn, where have you brought us? Cancellation Island, where a second chance might just be your last. Listen to Cancellation Island on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jay Shetty. My latest episode is with financial expert Scott Galloway. If you are doing a lot of side hustles, it's very, very difficult to be great at your main hustle. The only way you're going to build real wealth and economic security is to go all in on one thing. That is greatness, focus. None of this matters. None of it means a thing

if you can't have deep and meaningful relationships. Scott is a professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business. He's a bestselling author. He has earned a massive following through his lectures, podcasts, and YouTube channel. Scott Galloway. How do we rewire our relationship with money? Because most of us have a stressful relationship with money. You want to be good at money, put down the facade and start talking to people about their investments, how much money they make, what they do with their

money, how they save money. What I tell young people is you can have it all, you just can't have it all at once. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So that's it. It's simple but it's complicated. It's simple what needs to happen but it's a big organization and it's a lot of work, right? But the team's motivated and we're getting it done. How do you eradicate the stigma of chain restaurants? Because I think that's another thing too, right?

People think chain restaurants just aren't healthy for some reason. Even when I invested in Crystal, I liked the fact that they had a vegan option on the menu and stuff like that. But I also wouldn't try to push anything that I know I wouldn't eat, right? So I would eat Crystal, I would eat Red Lobster.

Like how do you get people to eradicate the stigma of just chain restaurants, not being healthy, I guess? Yeah, I mean, some chain restaurants are unhealthy based on the products they use. I think it's about focusing on the food. Like there's a lot of chain restaurants, there's only one that serves lobster and crab the way we do. So we are a chain restaurant, that is what it is, but the product is unique. And so it's focusing a bit more on the product. Where are you gonna get crab?

What chain restaurant are you gonna get beard-eye crab? What chain restaurant are you gonna get some of our, like, we've got this lobster Puppet Del that just came out. Nobody has that. What the hell is that? That sounds amazing. Lobster Puppet Del is amazing. It came out in November, right?

So we're doing some new things on the menu, using lobster and crab mostly. So it becomes a, the differentiator for us is as product and I want it to be service to hospitality. And once you, if we went on those two, then it's like, okay, it's not just a chain restaurant because it's got something that you can't get anywhere else. And it's got a feeling that you can't find anywhere else. And I feel like family when I get there and I want to come back. Like these are the things you can separate yourself on.

And then also over to some of y'all had some like y'all were working with Costa Migos, they're running some promotions where y'all had like that's good too I mean cuz that that's like the drink right now so y'all got some. With Snoop Dogg we're talking to him about his new gin drink right and so yeah there's opportunities for co-branding we've got Blake Griffin right now in our ads he's dunking lobster into butter if anybody's curious you can look that up but but yeah partnerships are key. You got bars at Red Lobster? Huh? You got bars? I didn't know that. Yeah. You know they got costume.

You got the bars, you got the, exactly. You got costume egos. And yeah, getting the right partnerships, right? Like people who, because you want to be more relevant. But like you just said, I didn't even know there was a bar at Red Lobster. Because that's not what people think about when they go watch the game, right? They don't think about going to Red Lobster. Those are some of the things that have to change. Let's go to the bar.

I wonder if it's because when we were young, like when we were going to Red Lobster, we were young, we weren't drinking. So we didn't even think to go to a bar. But we still don't think about that now, you know? They were running the ads though. It was commercials, they had. That's how you seen the thing about the Costa Migos.

I see endless shrimp. That was on Zeus? I'm sorry? What'd you advertise it? What? I never saw the Costa Migos. I see it in the truth. It was on Zeus? I'm sorry? What you're advertising? What? I never saw the Costa Migos Red Lobster commercial. Did you watch TV? Be honest.

I'm serious, because to that point, I seen the new partnership with Popeyes and Don Julio, but I never remember seeing the Costa Migos Red Lobster. But be honest, you seen that because the girls online, because the videos are going viral with them, like acting like it's a section. Yeah, that's true. If we trying to get back to five star feeling, Red Lobster,

we can't have no sections, no bottom girls coming out, talking about, yeah that's strange. But there's things you can do, right? We launched a happy hour, right? And like a happy hour is a simple thing. It's just, you know, same drinks or different drinks but discounted at a certain time. Come three to six, get drinks for five bucks

is what we're doing. So you get your beer, wine, cocktail, five bucks, discount on the appetizers. So now we need to message that more to the point, like people need to know that. But we launched that and since I got here we've been doing a lot, right? So that came out in November too. So we want to be a place where you can come hang out at the bar, have a drink, have fun, have a full dinner. It's like, you know, it's fancy food, but it's an approachable feeling, right?

You don't need to wear a suit, you know, to come to dinner, right? Come, it's, you know, we serve all people. Did y'all stop the endless shrimp promotion? Yeah, that's done. So no more endless shrimp. Jesus. How dare you.

You got it messed up now. By the way, that was a dumb, it wasn't a dumb promotion, but don't promise people endless shrimp because y'all never give endless shrimp. It was a challenge. I know people who've tried. I don't know if you met Matt when you walked in. They do put a cap on it. He's tried.

I've been in restaurants where they put a cap on the endless shrimp. I mean, let's look at it. The way it was done didn't work. I'm not saying it'll never be done, but it'll be done in a way that's more sensible. What's sensible? Because you guys, I'm gonna tell you what people will do. Go in there with four people, one person order endless shrimp, and they just keep bringing mad shrimp for the table. That's insensible.

I agree. I mean, it is. So look, I mean, people do promotions like this. Olive Garden does an endless pasta promotion. People do these things. Lies. All of this endless stuff is a lie. They will put a cap on your fat ass at some point.

But pasta's different because it fills you up so fast. Sure, we could just keep it. And it's cheap. Yeah. And it's cheap. So they can do that. So you just need to, the math needs to make sense. Is it endless cheddar biscuits too?

Well, if you want more biscuits, we'll give you more biscuits. We bring out six to the table. But biscuits, biscuits, biscuits we can give you. Cause when you eat them and drink that water, it's gonna fill your stomach up. Right up. Well, so this biscuits are amazing, right?

And people love them. And it's an easy thing for us to do. So, you know, that's an example of being hospitable. Right. You know, not every table is gonna get endless biscuits, but if you were asked to your server, could I have more biscuits? I'm not gonna say no.

Are you allowed to tell us the truth about the endless shrimp? Tell us the truth. It never was endless. It was endless. Put them out of business. And why did it come to an end? Look, let me say this. I can't get too much into it, but I'll say this.

The previous owner of the business was the shrimp supplier to the business. He's double dipping. Shrimp cutter. So the math is different. Gotcha. If you're strictly thinking about the business versus also thinking about the supply chain,

the shrimp supplier, then it's different math. Right, so I'm thinking just about the business right now. The supplier's no longer involved. Right. It often seems like they wanna put black people in these CEO positions when the company is messed up. So why did you want this job, especially at the time Red Lobster

was going through bankruptcy? So I did the work before. Look, I'm an ambitious person and I'm young for the position. I had a lot of success at Chang's, but even that when I took over was not looking good. So for me, I think the brand is worth saving. Mm-hmm I think it can be saved. There's a lot of things that need to be done

But I've got the energy and I've got you know, I'm dedicating the time We hired a great team. So for me, it's it's look there's it's a great iconic brand There's 30,000 people that work for the company if we can save it. That's a good thing for the country It's a good thing brand. There's 30,000 people that work for the company. If we can save it, that's a good thing. For the country, it's a good thing. For the people that work there, it's a good thing. For the people that have history going there, right? So it's not easy, but it's doable. And why not?

Why not try to see if we can get this done? How do you know when to step out? Cause you know you was with P.F. Chang for four years. First of all, why did you step down? I was gonna ask the same question. Yeah, why'd you leave P.F. Chang years. Well, first of all, why did you step out? I was gonna ask the same question. Why did you leave PF Chang's? Well, we more or less achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve initially. And you know, I was also involved on the finance side, right?

I was working at Hedge Fund. So I went back to the private equity side to look at the opportunity to do something similar because we learned a lot doing that. And we felt like we could do that again, right, with a different brand. And then the Fortress group reached out and we worked with them on Red Lobster. But PF Chang's is a great business.

This is about twice the size of PF Chang's in terms of sales and maybe three exercise in terms of footprint. So it's a bigger challenge, it's a bigger opportunity. You know, a lot of life is calculated risk, right? And it's, you know, it's hard to really build something without taking some chances along the way, right? There's no guarantee that you're gonna,

there's no guarantee when I took over the P.F. Chang's role that I'd be successful, but if I was, it'd be great for a lot of people, and we were. Same thing here. If we're successful here, this is an iconic brand that we brought back from bankruptcy and hopefully turn into a thriving company for decades to come, right?

So that to me is worth going for. So why did you start down with P.F. Chang's? Just, we were just basically done, we were ready to, you know. So once you turned them around. Once the owners decide that it's time to do something, going for. So why did you start down with VLJ? We were just basically done, we were ready to, you know. Once you turned them around. Once the owners decide that it's time to do something, you know, we turned it around and eventually, you know, without commenting on their situation,

but they're gonna do different things from an ownership perspective, right? So it's a, it's back to behind the scenes convos, right? But nothing to do with the business. So is that just the mind state of being, you know, who you are? Like they'll hire you, put you in these positions, you'll turn them around and you'll move on to the next thing?

No, no, no. I mean, it depends on the situation. If it's a group, for example, Fortress is willing to invest and do the work to turn this business around. And if that's the case, then I can be successful. But you need that alignment, ownership and operator. When ownership takes a different perspective, for example, we want to manage cost, let's say, or we want to cut certain things, or we want to stop investing in certain things.

If I disagree with that and I go execute it, then I'm responsible for the result. So on some level, you just need to agree with what ownership wants to do. Ownership owns the business. If you disagree it's you that gotta leave, right? Not the people that own the business. So to the extent that, you know, look, every CEO is either gonna resign or get fired one day. That's how CEO jobs end. You don't get promoted, you know, from that.

So for me it's, as long as things are aligned it makes makes sense. But it's not wise to be in a situation where you don't agree with the plan and you're responsible for implementing the plan. Because if you think something's not gonna work and you do it and it doesn't work like you thought it was, like you predicted, you're still gonna get blamed. Do you change the target audience for Red Lobster? I'm just thinking about it now, right?

And anytime you usually see a Red Lobster, it's in neighborhoods, right? It's in Queens, it's in areas where it's usually middle class or poorer. But when I look at P.F. Chang's, it's a little different, it's a lot different actually. Do you change your audience or is that the case? Because especially with the world now,

a lot of people are not making the money as they were before and they're struggling. So, which means in those areas, they going to be struggling coming to Red Lobster. You mean the demographics of where the restaurants are? Absolutely. So it's tricky to move your restaurant footprint because you have long leases and the footprint kind of is what it is. Some come up for renewal every year, et cetera, but for the most part.

What we can do is, so value is an equation. Part of it is price. And you can get some things on the menu that are lower priced. For example, the lobster rolls are great. If you want lobster and you want it for 20 bucks, we've got the lobster roll in certain markets for that price.

At the same time, value is what you get for the price. So if you improve what you get, then you improve value. So if hospitality is way better, and the food is more interesting, and the drinks are fun, and you improve value. So if hospitality is way better and the food is more interesting and the drinks are fun and you pay the same price but all of that is better, people will perceive that as better value. So value is important, but we approach it from both ends. Improve the product and then give people entry level things that you can get for 20 bucks, 15 bucks. You know we have shrimp your way for you know 1699 for two types of shrimp. There's things you can do that are Approachable if you don't want to do the full lobster for it for a higher price, right?

So I'm looking at the lobster fest menu right now. I go live my good right after this week I'm not here. I might take send me that I'm like, I never took my kids the red lobster never Mean, I'm like, you know, may like me and the let's take the kids the red lobster just to see what they know what they feel no I'm not gonna tell you I'm going but I'm gonna tell you I know exactly which one I'm going to to you know what I'm going to one but that one look a little beat up though it look a lot beat up but I'm gonna tell you something that's why I one? But that one look a little beat up though. It look a lot beat up. It look a lot beat up. But I'm gonna tell you something.

That's why I was just asking that question. They don't look. I pass it every morning. And in my mind, you know, you just thinking, nostalgia, I'm like, damn, yo, back in the day when I was young, that'd have been perfect. The hotel right there, the Red Lobster right there, you can go right to the Red Lobster.

They write the hotel. It's still perfect, my man, it's still perfect. That's a motel, that ain't no motel. It's a motel. But think about when you was 17, 18, that would have been perfect. Right. Well, think about when Beyonce said it in the song.

What did that do? Ooh, yes. When he eat me good, I take his ass, he red lobster. What did that do for the stage? And why did y'all capitalize on that? Yes. I wasn't here. Oh, my man said that was before me.

I didn't know. It's not too late, though, right? Because it's not too late for that. Even when Riley mentioned it on the boondocks. You know, the Kelsey brothers did something with us. So yeah, I mean, part of the game is to, is to take advantage of cultural moments, right? Like when something happens in the culture,

like you want to be on it. So that's something that we weren't very good at in the past and we need to get better at for sure. Did you even talk to them about that? Like did anybody reach out to Beyonce to say, hey. I don't know, I can't speak to that. You know, I wasn't here, but for example, Flavor Flav, we did. Flavor Flav reached out and said they wanted to save

Red Lobster, we did a promotion with them. So it's important for sure. And yeah, I mean look, now Kelsey Bellas reach out, we respond the same day, right? So we're engaging, and it's important. Man, I'm so impressed by you because I mean, number one, you're young, you're 36, you're from Nigeria. I'm just wondering like, what are the challenges,

being so young as a CEO, do people take you as serious as they should in the business that you're in? Yeah, I think so. I mean, look, I think the best thing you can do to accrue the respect you want is to just be a person worthy of respect, right? Like if you behave if you behave the right if you develop yourself a certain way and behave the right way and you're a Serious person and that's obvious people will they will respect you It's it's natural people know right if they meet you and they don't feel subconsciously like you're a person deserving of respect

They will give it to you, especially if you're young. But- In black. Yeah, sure. But you can overcome all that just by being a person that's clearly worthy of respect. And then that goes out the window. I don't have issues. If I sit down with somebody for 30 minutes,

they don't leave feeling like he's not serious, or he doesn't know what he's talking about, or he's not intelligent, or he can't communicate. At the end of it, they're fine. So yeah, maybe before, but you talk to somebody, people know, they understand, right? And so they don't. Don't say, ask about me, man, ask about me.

Well, it's just, you're not born as a finished product, it's all about development. So if you work, like I said, I said they made me join the speech and debate team in high school. You're that guy, you've been that guy. I can speak really well now, but that's been a work in process, right?

I played football growing up through high school, college. Yeah, it makes you strong physically, but you know what it does, it makes you strong mentally. You gotta wake up 6 a.m. every day, you gotta go train. So you learn things, right? And that becomes part of your character. The emotional discipline, that's important too. And you learn things, right, and that becomes part of your character. You know, the emotional discipline, that's important too, and you learn that. So if you spend your life building these skills, you will become a person that has these skills,

and that is what people respect. How has the weaponization of DEI impacted you, if at all? Do people say, oh, he's a DEI hire? No, I've just been so successful throughout my life, I don't get that. I mean, you could take, you know, for me it goes so successful throughout my life. I don't get that. I mean you can take you know for me It goes back to early early I I aimed to excel at everything I do and there's very little evidence of me not excelling at anything That I've tried to do whoosh from football to Brown to Goldman to TVG to Harvard to Paulson

Like there's no real else on the on not say I won't fail at anything and I have failed at plenty Let's go talk to them coaches. Well, he's not as good as he thought he was. She wants to know my 40 yard dash. There's a record out there somewhere. That's funny. Somebody at Brown like, I used to bust his ass when he was talking about dick. That's a fair point.

But, you know, I'm not saying that to Brad, but I'm just saying you can build a habit of excellence and that's how you'll be viewed, right? And so I think anybody can achieve, you just have to build these habits, right? So it's really more motivation to people who are listening. Coming from Nigeria, you say your dad was a neurologist, I read your mom was a pharmacist, were they upset you didn't stay in that field in some way shape or form? My parents were always just like,

whatever you do, just be the best at it. That's all they ever cared about. When we got to America, we lived in Springfield, Illinois. I remember we went to go get a haircut, and the barber, the barber's name was Fresh the barber. And Fresh was driving an S-Class Benz, even though it was a barber. In Nigeria, that's unheard of, right?

A barber driving a Benz. But my dad's point when we saw that was in America, if you're the best at whatever you do, whatever it is, you can do really well, you can have a nice life, you can build something for yourself. So they were just like, choose whatever you want, but aim to be the best at it, right? Which I think is good advice.

Because people have different interests. Not everybody's gonna be care about finance. Not everybody's good enough at math to do that. But you might be good at something else. You know, you might start a podcast. Maybe you're very good at interviewing people. You're a very good speaker. You might find some other interests, music or whatever.

But whatever you do, if you build a mentality that my goal is to be the best at it, then you're gonna do all right. I like this too, man, because it's clear you understand culture, because I can't think of, I'm trying to think, have any CEOs of any restaurants come here? I'm really trying to think.

Besides Carbone, no. Oh, Carbone comes here. I don't wanna say no, because we've been doing it for 14 years, but this is the first that I can remember. Why is this important to do? Why is it important to do media? You gotta get the word out, you know?

People need to, people don't, I live this every day, so I know everything we're doing, but most people don't. So somebody's gotta tell them. Is that difficult? Who better than me? Do they listen to you? Is that difficult? Do they listen to you?

Yeah, I get, people listen when I, if I do like a CNN, I did a CNN interview, I did a Today Show interview, or I did a Wall Street Journal interview, and those get a lot of views. I think people are interview, I did a Today Show interview, I did a Wall Street Journal interview, and those get a lot of views. I think people are curious, right? Like what's going on with this guy, right? 36 year old CEO, like, you know, black guy, what's up?

And so they wanna, there's a curiosity there, but that's fine because that creates attention for the business, which is what I mostly care about. Right, so. Oh my God. No, please. And then what's good about it is you get to hear what people want.

Yeah. Like, you know, you like, we're talking to you about what our memories were. And you guys represent the culture, right? Yeah. Because you guys speak for the culture in a way that not a lot of people do. You talk to viewers all the time,

you hear what people are listening to, you see what people are engaging with, what parts of the segment. So you guys know, right? And so yeah, for sure it's helpful for me to hear and it's helpful to have a platform to speak and talk about some of the things that we're working on. I do feel like there is room for just smaller locations.

Like if I'm sitting here at the radio station and I wanna go to lunch but I don't wanna sit somewhere, like I just wanna run in, grab a lobster and a shrimp ball real quick. I feel like there's room for that because you got food trucks that got these lobster rolls and everything. For sure.

If I started the company today, they wouldn't be as big as they are. If I could stab my finger and shrink all of them, you probably would. They were built for a different time. Now a lot of the business is off-premise, it's a lot of grab and grove. So my point is that we're kinda stuck with the footprint.

Right, it's not. Are you, reach out, is an African out here right now who's trying to shrink everything, his name is Elon Musk. I'm sure that's a doge way of doing business. Real estate is not impossible to change, but it's harder to change. And it's expensive to change. If you want to get out of a lease, you need to pay the landlord.

How many years you got left, how many dollars per year, times that by 30% is probably what you owe them. And then you got to build a new restaurant. That's a few million dollars per unit. So it's a thing that you would do, you just need to, you have limited capital, you gotta make decisions, what comes first, right? But for sure, if you were starting this company all over,

you wouldn't have as big, and that was true for P.F. Chang's too. P.F. Chang's was 8, 9,000 square feet, the new ones we built were 4,000, 5,000 square feet. The new ones we built were four, 5,000 square feet. And you'd probably do the same thing here. And these are bigger. These are closer to 10,000. So it's a good valid point.

Just a harder thing to fix quickly. Before you get out of here, because you already gave the CEO a look back to your people to wrap it up. No, no. What's your involvement with HBCU? What's Red Lobster doing with HBCU? Yeah, look, so, I mean, before that, Darden, the founder of Red Lobster, Bill Darden, who

Darden Company is named after, that's Olive Garden, Texas Longhorn, etc. So he's an important restaurateur in American history. The first restaurant that he opened was Red Lobster. And that, from the very beginning, had a really good relationship with the black American community. This is in 68, so at the very end of the Civil Rights Movement. But from the very beginning, black people were welcome to eat there, welcome to work there.

And that was stans that he took from the very beginning. So it's always had a good relationship with black America from the start. You mentioned Beyonce, you mentioned Flavor Flav. It's always had a position in culture. I'm just acknowledging it and speaking to it and doing more for that, to try to build that. So HBCUs, we did Band of the Year, right?

Where we went to watch the bands perform, Bamu won, Miles won for the junior division, and we gave the awards out, we sponsored it, Red Lobster, and Millions of Dollars went to scholarships and things like that. So we're gonna do more, that's a start. But it's an important community, it's one that has been connected to the brand

for a long time and it's a good place to spend time and spend money on our behalf. All right, well, we appreciate you for joining us and bringing us some biscuits. Yeah, enjoy. Thank you so much. And whatever we can do to help, man, I wanna see you succeed.

I appreciate that. If people like you succeed, then that just I want to see you succeed. Yeah, I appreciate that. If people like you succeed, then that just means more success for the rest of us. I appreciate that. Yeah, visit your local at Red Lobster. You guys send feedback and we'll keep improving. I'm going this weekend. Thank you. Well, there you have it. It's Demola Adamloken. Yes, you nailed it.

Alright, there we go. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. It's in the morning. The Breakfast Club. What would you do if mysterious drones appeared over your hometown? I started asking questions. What do you remember happening on that night of December 16th? It actually rotated around our house, looking as if it was peering in each window of our home. I'm Gabe Linners. From Imagine, iHeart Podcasts, and Linners Entertainment, listen to Obscura, Invasion of the Drones,

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I have the hookup. The hookup? The hookup for what? I'm solving a mystery through sex and haven't made a private dick joke until now? Poppers? Why are there so many poppers? All roads lead to...

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