I worked in Portland Maine for a while. One of the women who worked with me had a couple of her own Lobster Pots. For about five years I never had to pay for Lobster. Every time I went up there, she had a couple for me.
I got spoiled.
Red Lobster may be seafood in Nebraska.
It is not.
I stuff mine with crab and broil it.
I was a Manager at a power plant in Boston and a couple of the troops got a license to run a couple of traps in the out falls from the condensers.
I remember them sucking down the stuff they pulled up. The place was a hazardous waste dumping ground on the reserve channel for well over a 125 years.
Probably a lot of these old chains were originally designed to give middle-class people back then a taste of something exotic. As the U.S. has lost its provincialism & the younger generation has acquired more sophisticated tastes, these restaurants may have lost their relevance. Even a facelift may not help. Why bother going there when plenty of places around, especially in urban areas, offer far better food? (Or hipper-style chains like Chipolte?)
I see these chains as useful when traveling on the road somewhere on the highway, or maybe schlepping a child or elderly person. But when I live or travel in a city with so many options, I want to enjoy unique restaurants.