The "Red Lobster closing" rumors are not at all true and Darden Restaurants - the Orlando-based company that manages Red Lobster - has slammed the circulating Internet rumors as false. So yes! The chain's alleged demise isn't going to happen... at least for now.
On Christmas day, news broke out that Red Lobster is closing down. The said news even claimed that the chain is shuttering its restaurants all over the country. Two days after that news broke out, the "Red Lobster closing" rumor remains to be one of the trending subjects on Yahoo!, Twitter, ad Facebook.
However, Darden Restaurants has slammed the Internet rumors and even revealed its next big plan for the famous chain. The Sun-Sentinel reported that Darden is simply gearing to either sell or spin off Red Lobster into a separate company. "We never said we were closing any restaurants," spokesman Rich Jeffers added.
Jeffers said that the Internet rumors that Red Lobster is closing actually stem from a piece in LA Weekly that "was clearly being facetious" about the brand's demise. Because of this, other media outlets wrongly assumed that the chain is finally closing its doors to its customers.
"You had a couple outlets where clearly folks weren't practicing good journalism, and no one called to verify if what they read in LA Weekly was accurate," Jeffers said.
The LA Weekly article was updated Friday that "no restaurants were closing."
Red Lobster General Manager in the Downriver area Kelly Fitzsimmons reaffirmed that the restaurant is not at all closing, The News Herald reported. "We'll be around for a long time," she added.
Jeffers revealed that the possible sale or spinoff will be in the works starting July 2014.
Red Lobster has 705 restaurants all over the U.S. and Canada. It is owned by Darden Restaurants, who happens to own the Olive Garden brand and LongHorn Steakhouse as well.
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