What happened to Buffalo's chain restaurants? (2024)

For Annette Kasper, the Red Lobster on Maple Road will always hold cherished memories. Every year on her son Ian’s birthday, she took him there for dinner after school. He liked to eat the rotund cheddar bay biscuits.

“Every kid loves the rolls there,” Kasper said.

Maureen Rivera, owner of McPartlan’s Corner and the Fairdale Banquet Center, also used to take her young family to Red Lobster. Not necessarily because the food was “high-end,” but because the convenience couldn’t be beat.

“It was quick, close,” Rivera said. “And they had good rolls.”

As of May 13, Red Lobster and its cheesy, buttery biscuits left the region when the three local restaurants – in Buffalo, Amherst and Hamburg – closed abruptly. The 56-year-old national chain closed dozens of its 650 restaurants this week and is expected to file for bankruptcy before Memorial Day, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And it isn’t the only sit-down restaurant chain to leave the Buffalo area in recent years.

TGI Friday’s has only two restaurants left in Erie County, at the Boulevard Mall in Amherst and the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Buffalo. But the fate of the downtown Buffalo location is in limbo as it is currently up for lease. Donovan Real Estate Services referred to TGI Friday’s as a “former” restaurant in its listing and said it is available for lease June 30 or sooner with a 30-day notice. The restaurant was open Friday and staff reached by phone said they had not been notified of its closure.

Ruby Tuesday closed its last local restaurant during the pandemic. Friendly’s closed its four remaining Erie County locations in 2019. Pizza Hut closed its 17 Buffalo-area restaurants in 2020, then switched business models, and opened six takeout-only restaurants locally in the past year.

It begs the questions: Is it them or is it us? Why are so many chain restaurants leaving Buffalo?

Experts point to a co*cktail of reasons behind the flight of nationally owned casual sit-down restaurants, such as Red Lobster.

“The changing competitive landscape, combined with some poor management decisions, combined with the inflationary environment and rising labor costs ... it just creates a toxic, perfect storm,” said Charles Lindsey, associate professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo. “And then the pandemic has accelerated what was already happening.”

Many of the chains that have left Buffalo, such as Friendly’s, Ruby Tuesday and Pizza Hut, have filed for bankruptcy within the last few years.

Management issues can’t be overlooked. At Red Lobster, a $20 “endless shrimp” promotion that turned into a permanent menu item last summer cost the chain’s largest shareholder, Thai Union, $11 million, according to CNN.

In 2019, Friendly’s then-CEO George Michel cited “shifting demographics and consumer preferences, increased competition and rising costs” as reasons for closing the Buffalo locations. After closing 20% of its restaurants, Friendly’s has also cited a personal failure to keep its menu and interior design up to date. It wants to return to focusing on ice cream.

“Sometimes to grow you have to shrink,” Sherif Mityas, CEO of Friendly’s Restaurants, said in a news release.

The fastest-growing chains are fast casual or limited service, such as Starbucks and Chipotle, where there are fewer overhead costs. Customers can order ahead of time online or in a drive-thru, receive their food immediately and minimize staff interactions.

Techmonic, in its annual Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report, found that full-service chain restaurants, such as Red Lobster, experienced a “notably slower” sales growth increase in 2023, compared to limited-service chains such as Chick-fil-A.

“Some people have gotten more used to using a drive-thru and eating at home,” said Frederick Floss, an economics and finance professor at SUNY Buffalo State University.

When Pizza Hut returned to Buffalo in April 2023, it followed a new fast-casual business approach by selling pizza takeout only. On opening day, a line of customers formed outside the Delaware Avenue store an hour before opening, Buffalo News reporter Samantha Christmann wrote at the time.

“People miss the Hut,” Lori Allan of Depew said in August. “Yes, it’s Buffalo. And yes, we have better pizza, but their pan pizza is unparalleled.”

The Buffalo food and drink market is also “very, very competitive,” Floss said, and “less reliant on chain restaurants.”

“Individuals have a lot of choice in Western New York, and it’s probably much more like a much bigger city,” Floss said. “That makes this just that much harder to compete.”

Buffalo’s independent food scene, specifically, has seen “considerable growth” in recent years, Lindsey said. An expanding number of choices, especially for diners seeking foods from every corner of the world, from Bangladesh to Georgia to the Caribbean, has made competition fiercer.

“Just because chains come and go, (it) doesn’t say anything about the Western New York economy,” Floss said. “This has happened as long as chains have been around. They come. They go. They come back. We’ve seen a number of chains over the years leave Buffalo and come back.”

People may also be more conscious of investing their money back into the community by eating at locally owned restaurants.

“There’s been a push over the last 10, 15, 20 years by small businesses and the various small business associations to raise the importance of shopping locally in the public consciousness,” Lindsey said.

Annette Kasper stopped going to Red Lobster a few years ago, when Ian became an adult with an “expanded” palate. He has since chosen independent restaurants, such as Danny Sheehan’s in Lockport or Griffon Gastropub, for his birthday dinner.

“As he’s gotten older,” Kasper said. “He’s chosen a local restaurant.”