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Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Readers Choice 2006 Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Our Valley Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend June 30, 2006 Red Lobster The area's larger chain restaurants I have frequented — and reviewed — include Olive Garden, McGrath's Fish House, The Roadhouse Grill, and Outback Steakhouse. In general, my dining experiences were good ones — no moments of enthralling cuisine, but numerous encounters with good food at fair prices in pleasant surroundings. My recent dinner at Red Lobster was no different. How have these restaurants managed to quietly revolutionize an entire industry sector while remaining pretty much under the radar? They achieve massive economies of scale. This is good. They hit attractive price-points because of this economy of scale. This is also good. Yet their margins are paper-thin. This is a problem. They are not dummies. The square footage they devote to tables is enormous compared to the kitchen areas which service them. Thus, they process a lot of customers in a given period. This is known in the trade as "table turns," and the more of them a restaurant can achieve while keeping diners and their crews happy, the more money in the bank. For example, we adore those blinking, vibrating pagers that let us know when our table is ready. So does The Darden Group, owners of Red Lobster, Olive Garden and other chains. Those cute gadgets help turn a table around in a flash compared to older procedures. They have utterly demolished the stuffy notion that "sit-down eating out" is for special occasions and requires dressing up and acting formally. Note this quote from Red Lobster's Web site: "We created a place where our guests really felt at home. A place where they could feel comfortable enough to laugh out loud or feed shrimp to a friend or pass a lusciously rich dessert around the table." Did we observe any unusual hilarity or ostentatious food-sharing during our recent visit to Red Lobster? No. But it was readily apparent the casual dining sector is firmly entrenched in Medford. Now let's talk food. Not surprisingly, Red Lobster's menu blueprint is much like other chains — that is, there is a dizzying array of choices calculated to hit that particular "sweet spot" where a customer's taste buds and financial status intersect. Advertisement I had decided it would be a night of bacchanal and went for "The Ultimate Feast" at $23. This included a broiled Atlantic lobster tail, Snow Crab legs, sautéed scampi, and breaded shrimp. Also included were the restaurant's "Cheddar Bay Biscuits," a Caesar salad, and a number of starch selections. Sounds like a lot of money? Look at it this way: a local supermarket charges $10 per pound for live lobster and $6 a pound for Snow Crab. I concluded the full dinner pricing at Red Lobster was more than fair — and the seafood was very good to boot. My wife is always more restrained than I and opted for the shrimp and lobster Caesar salad at $11. However, she forgot to ask for dressing on the side, and the plate arrived swimming in a rich creamy dressing. The menu's back page is devoted to light house selections, where clients can protect their waistlines from excess — and that's a very good thing because many chains play to diners' weaknesses. The drinks list is perfectly adequate. Foo-foo cocktails run $6-$9 and one can get a margarita with, literally, a tiny sidecar of Grand Marnier perched on its rim. This illustrates another point that adds to the success of chain restaurants: they market a sort of innocuous decadence, perhaps helping enforce the idea that anyone can enjoy what was formerly the province of the wealthy. The wine selection is varied with per-glass (generous pours) prices running in the $6 range and bottles going from $18 to $34. The infamous industrial Bud Light is the only draft selection but one may enjoy a Sam Adams or Heineken for $4. As our evening wound down, we realized the background music had us pegged all too precisely. The Captain and Tennille were concluding "Love Will Keep Us Together" as we drained our wine. Then, to the strains of Robert Knight's cover of Detroit funk artist Carl Carlton's "Everlasting Love," we were wafted out into a balmy Southern Oregon evening. -- Hubert Smith Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Windermere Van Vleet Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Texas Electric Choice Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews Online poker at AbsolutePoker.com Advertisement s Advertisement