{"slug": "red-lobster-ceo-using-ai-nostalgia-for-greatest-comeback-in-the-history-of", "title": "Red Lobster CEO using AI, nostalgia for ‘greatest comeback in the history of restaurant industry’", "summary": "Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun plans 'the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry' using AI and nostalgia after the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024 and closed dozens of locations. The 37-year-old former P.F. Chang's CEO is streamlining operations, engaging customers, and leveraging technology to revive the struggling seafood chain.", "body_md": "# Red Lobster CEO using AI, nostalgia for ‘greatest comeback in the history of restaurant industry’\n\nBy\n\nTeresa Mull , Fox News\n\nPublished\nJune 19, 2026, 10:53 a.m. ET\n\nSee more of our coverage in your search results.\n\n[Add The New York Post on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=nypost.com)\n\nRed Lobster closed dozens of locations nationwide in May 2024 before [filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy](https://nypost.com/2024/05/20/business/red-lobster-files-for-bankruptcy-after-losing-millions-on-ill-fated-all-you-can-eat-shrimp-promotion/).\n\nNow, the seafood chain’s 37-year-old chief executive officer says he’s planning “the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry.”\n\n[Damola Adamolekun](https://nypost.com/2026/02/17/business/red-lobster-likely-closing-more-restaurants-after-shuttering-130-ceo/), former CEO of P.F. Chang’s, became Red Lobster’s new CEO in September 2024.\n\nBefore that, he worked with Fortress Investment Group as it prepared to acquire the Florida-based restaurant chain.\n\nPrior to filing for bankruptcy, Red Lobster reportedly went through five CEOs in five years.\n\nWhile at Fortress, Adamolekun visited a variety of [Red Lobster restaurants](https://nypost.com/2026/05/30/business/red-lobster-closing-times-square-location-after-23-years-in-nyc/) in secret to assess them.\n\n“It’s very easy for staff to disengage and check out,” he told [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/story/red-lobster-ceo-damola-adamolekun) in an interview this month.\n\n“But they hadn’t. I saw people that’d been there ten, 20, 30, 40 years. There was a lot of love for the brand. What they needed was a north star.”\n\nHe reportedly told 30,000 employees at a town hall that the company was “going to execute the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry,” setting the tone for an aggressive turnaround effort.\n\nMany analysts and media reports have cited the company’s decision to make its [endless shrimp promotion](https://nypost.com/2026/04/01/business/red-lobster-to-revive-disastrous-endless-shrimp-deal/) a permanent offering as one factor behind its financial troubles.\n\nEndless shrimp did return to select Red Lobster locations earlier this year, but Adamolekun made it clear in [a statement to Fox 13](https://www.fox13news.com/news/endless-shrimp-red-lobster-brings-back-deal-after-2024-bankruptcy) in Florida that it would be for a limited time only.\n\nPrior to its bankruptcy filing, Red Lobster was also dealing with “the fallout from a 2014 move that sold off ownership of the chain’s real estate and saddled the company with lease payments,” [FOX Business](https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/red-lobster-considering-more-restaurant-closures-ceo-says) reported.\n\nIn May, a Red Lobster restaurant touted as the [chain’s oldest continuously operating location shut down](https://nypost.com/2026/05/20/lifestyle/red-lobsters-oldest-location-closing-after-56-years/) in Florida after 56 years.\n\n“As part of the normal course of business, Red Lobster continuously evaluates restaurant performance and lease terms and may, from time to time, [choose to close](https://nypost.com/2026/06/02/us-news/curtis-sliwa-sitting-shiva-times-square-red-lobster-blames-all-the-shrimp-you-can-eat-deals/) or relocate select restaurants,” Red Lobster told Fox News Digital at the time.\n\nIn addition to streamlining operations and closing underperforming restaurants, Adamolekun and Red Lobster are engaging with customers and indulging their nostalgia.\n\nAs a high-profile figure, the CEO also often appears on podcasts, in magazines, on television and social media.\n\nUnder Adamolekun’s leadership, [P.F. Chang’s](https://nypost.com/2024/08/26/business/ex-p-f-changs-ceo-to-take-helm-at-red-lobster-as-bankrupt-chain-plans-to-close-23-more-locations/) began generating revenues of approximately $1 billion a year, according to [Goldman Sachs.](https://www.goldmansachs.com/alumni/spotlight/2024/q-a-with-damola-adamolekun-ceo-of-red-lobster)\n\n“The biggest lesson I learned was the importance of adaptability,” he told the investment firm.\n\nConsumers’ emotional connection to the brand has become a central part of Red Lobster’s turnaround strategy, Adamolekun said.\n\n“I underestimated the impact of these emotional connections, which became a guiding principle in our decision-making, from menu changes to ambiance redesigns.”\n\nRed Lobster has reintroduced popcorn shrimp and hush puppies, seafood boils, $19.99 shrimp deals and $20 lobster rolls, as Fox News Digital previously reported.\n\nThe young CEO has also promoted happy hour and appetizer deals. “One thing that won’t be changing,” he said in [an advertisement](https://www.instagram.com/reels/DKxewpbuQCZ/), “these Cheddar Bay biscuits. We got that right the first time. Welcome back.”\n\nOn the “Black Money Tree” podcast, Adamolekun said he wants Red Lobster to become “the most AI-forward restaurant company that exists.”\n\nHe added, “One of the advantages of being young is that I understand the technology pretty well,” noting that he uses [AI](https://nypost.com/2026/06/17/business/why-jeff-bezos-predicts-ai-will-create-labor-shortage/) regularly in his own work.\n\nRed Lobster has long been popular among Black consumers. By 2015, about one in six diners were Black, a higher share than any other major casual chain, according to Vanity Fair.\n\nThe chain also became a springboard for Black managers and culinary talent, many coming through historically Black colleges and universities.\n\nRed Lobster is projecting positive net income by the end of the fiscal year under Adamolekun’s leadership, according to the Vanity Fair profile.\n\n“We’re growing mid-single digits to low-double digits on certain weeks, which is good,” he told the publication.\n\n“More people are ordering delivery than they [did] in the past. We’re growing, [but] we still have work to do to reclaim where we were.”\n\nFox News Digital reached out to Red Lobster for comment; it declined to offer any additional insights at this time.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/red-lobster-ceo-using-ai-nostalgia-for-greatest-comeback-in-the-history-of", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/06/19/business/red-lobster-ceo-37-planning-greatest-comeback-via-nostalgia-ai-following-bankruptcy/", "published_at": "2026-06-19 14:53:49+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-19 15:11:35.693119+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Red Lobster", "Damola Adamolekun", "P.F. Chang's", "Fortress Investment Group", "Vanity Fair", "Fox Business", "Goldman Sachs", "Fox News"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/red-lobster-ceo-using-ai-nostalgia-for-greatest-comeback-in-the-history-of", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/red-lobster-ceo-using-ai-nostalgia-for-greatest-comeback-in-the-history-of.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/red-lobster-ceo-using-ai-nostalgia-for-greatest-comeback-in-the-history-of.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/red-lobster-ceo-using-ai-nostalgia-for-greatest-comeback-in-the-history-of.jsonld"}}