Red Lobster Is Bringing Back A Beloved Menu Item That We've Been Missing

Damola Adamolekun, Red Lobster's new 35-year-old CEO, has a plan to pull the chain back from bankruptcy. A top priority? Bringing back the restaurant's fan-favorite hushpuppies.

But hushpuppies alone won't save the floundering chain. The young CEO has a big task in front of him — and he's eager to take on the job. In an interview with CNN, Adamolekun explained that he admired the chain's significance as the "first really successful casual dining chain in America at scale." Despite his youth, Adamolekun has found success leading casual dining chains before. In 2020, he took over as CEO of P.F. Chang's and helped guide the chain through the pandemic. He's going to need that experience at his new job, since Red Lobster appears to be on the brink of bankruptcy.

As one of his first moves at Red Lobster, Adamolekun plans to cut back the existing menu while adding a few new options. True to his respect for the chain's history, though, Adamolekun's new menu reintroduces beloved classics. Aside from the hush puppies, he plans to revamp the chain's tartar sauce to taste more like the original recipe.

There's no word of when the hushpuppies will be back, but they're sure to cause a commotion when they do. "There was a social media riot over us taking off the hush puppies a few years ago. So that is coming back," Adamolekun told TODAY, joking, "I expect a stampede into our restaurants because we're bringing back the hush puppies." It sounds like TODAY show co-host Al Roker will be first in line. "I stopped going to Red Lobster because they stopped the hush puppies," said Roker.

One fan-favorite that probably won't be back? The chain's famous endless shrimp. Red Lobster introduced the promotion during the pandemic to boost sales, but it caused chaos for kitchens and servers. Apparently, the endless shrimp wasn't financially sustainable, either. "I know how to do math," Adamolekun told TODAY. However, he told CNN that it wasn't a hard no. "I never want to say never, but certainly not the way that it was done." If not endless shrimp, there are rumors going around about Red Lobster trying out endless lobster — though that strikes us as financially more difficult to pull off than the shrimp were.