When beef prices climb, a restaurant like Chili’s or Applebee’s can advertise chicken specials and find ways to entice customers to order more affordable proteins.
But when a chain focuses on one specific protein as part of its brand identity, its options become limited. Buffalo Wild Wings advertises boneless wing specials when bone-in prices rise, and WingStop, despite its name, sold chicken thighs in 2021 when wing prices skyrocketed, according to CNBC.
Still, the more specific your offering, the harder it is to pivot. That’s what doomed a number of Texas BBQ restaurants recently, as the price of beef has climbed, TheStreet reported.
When customers expect brisket, they may not want pulled pork, and when they’re going to a seafood chain, it’s hard to sell them beef or chicken. This problem factored into Red Lobster’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, impacted Bahama Breeze, which was closed completely by parent company Darden Restaurants, and led to the Joe’s Crab Shack downsizing.
Long John Silver’s keeps shrinking
Long John Silver’s has long been one of the most successful seafood-based fast-food chains in the United States by sheer store count. Captain D’s, a rival chain, may have surpassed it with about 530 restaurants, according to documents published on Franchise Depth.
At its peak, Long John Silver’s had 1,081 locations, and that number may be below 500 now. The seafood fast-food restaurant chain, launched in Lexington, Ky., in 1969, closed another 30 locations in 2025, according to Undercurrent News, which pulled the information from the chain’s franchise disclosure documents (FDD).
The store locator page on Long John Silver’s website shows 494 remaining locations.
Long John Silver’s menu features fried Alaskan pollock, shrimp, and chicken. It also offers grilled salmon and shrimp options.
Seafood chains have struggled
Affordable seafood has been a challenge for restaurants. Red Lobster fell into bankruptcy partly because it offered an all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion.
Shrimp is an expensive protein, and people can eat a lot of it. That promotion, which was only one factor in Red Lobster’s eventual Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, cost the company $11 million.
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The challenge with offering affordable seafood is that seafood just isn’t cheap. In theory, you can lure people in with shrimp, lobster, and crab leg deals, hoping to sell them high-margin drinks or desserts, but historically, this hasn’t worked all that well.
