It was simply a couple of years in the past that the “famend” seafood restaurant chain Purple Lobster was on the verge of extinction. After being purchased by a Thai conglomerate at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and putting in an Countless Shrimp promotion that led the conglomerate to chop ties and shut 140 areas en path to chapter. Now, Purple Lobster is seeing an enormous resurgence because of the mixture of a forward-thinking CEO who honed in on the impression of Black diners on the model.
In a profile from the New York Occasions, Purple Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun spoke in regards to the significance of getting Black diners’ enter in restoring the chain and recognizing their love for the restaurant. “Black People inform me it was a celebratory expertise, and I feel individuals had been unhappy to lose that and need to get it again,” mentioned Adamolekun, who’s Nigerian-American, at Purple Lobster’s flagship location in Occasions Sq. in New York Metropolis. “I would like Purple Lobster to be a spot the place you rejoice large events and every day events,” he added. That a lot was evident because the restaurant was internet hosting an album launch occasion by Grammy Award-winning R&B star Ciara, who confirmed up along with her husband, New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson.
The connection for Purple Lobster and Black diners is deep. After its first casual-dining location opened in Lakeland, Florida, in 1968, the model was extra inviting to the Black group, which noticed its center class rising after World Struggle II and its struggle for development within the Civil Rights period. Purple Lobster has certainly been a cultural phenomenon in Black tradition from movie references to mentions in Beyoncé songs like “Formation” and Hip-Hop tracks.
Adamolekun seized on that attraction when taking up the CEO function final September, introducing merch like “Cheddar Bae” T-shirts impressed by the restaurant’s signature biscuits, and bringing in a menu with outdated favorites like hushpuppies and popcorn shrimp, together with new gadgets like a seafood boil bag. “The luggage had been so well-liked that we had been operating out of product initially,” Adamolekun mentioned. “Our gross sales had been up 80% for the week that we launched them.”
He’s additionally working to make sure that tariffs enacted by President Donald Trump don’t have an effect on Purple Lobster clients, and expressed in a Good Morning America interview that they gained’t go that on to them. Adamolekun additionally added, “So we’re listening, we’re studying the feedback. My CMO says, ‘Preserve commenting, and we’ll preserve cracking.’”
