Posted on 02/27/2015 2:18:59 PM PST by NYer
How’s this for an unusual marketing gimmick:
Red Robin is hoping to lure Catholics who are abstaining from meat during Lent by presenting its latest seafood menu — even inviting Pope Francis to lunch.
And other fast food restaurants are jumping on the Lent wagon as well.
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, extended an invitation to the pope on Wednesday as it introduced its new “Wild Pacific” crab cake burger.
The company released a statement “joyfully” extending an invitation to the pope to eat at Red Robin during the Lenten season.
“If His Holiness accepts and visits any U.S. location between February 18 and April 2, Red Robin will offer The Wild Pacific Crab Cake Burger to guests for free, while supplies last, on the remaining Fridays during Lent,” the company said.
There are more than 500 Red Robin restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.
What are other restaurants doing to reel in Catholics during Lent? Read on.
Photo from Red Robin
Not at all! You should visit New England. :) I lived in Virginia for a few years when I was a child. I have many fond memories.
**“Wild Pacific” crab cake burger.**
Yum, my mouth is watering.
My problem is that I love to cook GOOD seafood, so it's not really much of a penance. It was more of a penance back in the days when the apprentices of London petitioned the guilds to prohibit their masters from feeding them salmon more than three times a week!
I heard this in history class back in the 70s, and it appears to be true from a quick google:
From "The History of Fly Fishing":
. It is reported that the first formation of a trade union occurred when the apprentices of London sent a petition to the Lord Mayor praying for them to stop being fed salmon and asking for proper fish to eat like pike or perch. They must have been successful because legislation was passed in the early 15th Century that you could not feed your apprentices with salmon more than three times a week!!
I just eat a toasted cheese.
But... but... I’m abstaining from chocolate for Lent. Discrimination!
Interesting history.
I’ll go look for it!
I did an Orthodox Lent one year...needless to say, no Orthodox person outside of a very strict monastery ever does it. However, it was common in the Western Church as well until a few hundred years ago.
No meat, of course, but also no eggs or dairy products, and in monasteries or really strict households, no oil, either. We kept a fast where you didn’t eat meat or dairy, but you could eat fish, and since we didn’t have much money, it was always cheap canned tuna fish or sardines. No crab cakes!
It was a good fast, although you ended up living mostly on grains and legumes, but it you really did have to work at it. However, the important thing is to have community support for your fasting - when I was a kid, nobody in New York even touched meat during Lent! Including most of my Jewish friends...
He won’t be here until September.
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