Red Lobster first opened in Lakeland, Florida, in 1968 and was acquired by the food conglomerate General Mills in 1970. General Mills then spun the chain off in 1995 along with the rest of its restaurant division, which also included Olive Garden, as Darden Restaurants. In 2014, amid flagging sales and pressure from investors, Darden sold Red Lobster for $2.1 billion to Golden Gate Capital, a San Francisco private-equity firm.

To raise enough cash to make the deal happen, Golden Gate sold off Red Lobster's real estate to another entity — in this case, a company called American Realty Capital Properties — and then immediately leased the restaurants back. The next year, Red Lobster bought back some sites, but many of its restaurants were suddenly strapped with added rent expenses. Even if Darden had kept Red Lobster, it's not clear it would have taken a different route: A press release from the time says it had contacted buyers to explore such a transaction. But in Maze's view, the sale of the real estate was sort of an original sin for Red Lobster's current troubles. He compared it to throwing out a spare parachute — chances are, you'll be OK, but if the first parachute fails, you're in deep trouble.

First thing private equity does is sell the property, whether the business is a LTC home or a restaurant chain.

Fuck private equity. I hope every one of those bastards rots in hell where they belong.

They should end all their leases and look for smaller properties to rebrand as a lobster roll shack type of spot near beaches.

Fried fish, shrimp, Maine lobster, clam chowder. Have a bar, serve east coast oysters. You could even do Cajun shrimp like Boiling Crab. Serve the seafood people want. They should try to be a more affordable cross between Bubba Gump and Legal Seafood.

They're going to start charging for cheddar biscuit refills, aren't they?

I was reading how some fishing company bought out a bunch of Red Lobsters to deliberately sell them marked up product so that even in bankruptcy the parent company was making record profits.