Fish and chips on white plate with two cups of sauce – Sham Clicks/Shutterstock
On the earth of American quick meals, it is secure to say that seafood eating places are nowhere close to as widespread as extra acquainted institutions focusing on mainstays like burgers or hen. Smithsonian Ocean has highlighted a sure American squeamishness surrounding sea-based protein. This lack of recognition could also be a part of why seafood restaurants like Bubba Gump and Kona Grill are disappearing across the country, with many once-beloved chains declaring chapter to fight the results of inflation and altering client habits. However all is just not misplaced for lovers of fish in all its varieties. Sure seafood chains are making a comeback, they usually’re hopefully right here to remain.
Eating places like Purple Lobster, Lengthy John Silver’s, and Arthur Treacher’s are rising from years-long slumps with new areas, up to date menu choices, and even refreshed aesthetics which will simply reinvigorate their recognition with a brand new technology of patrons. Let’s discover what these seafood institutions as soon as had been, how they misplaced their approach, and the way every model is efficiently chasing a recent begin.
Purple Lobster storefront with Lobsterfest signal – Tada Pictures/Shutterstock
Beginning within the Nineteen Seventies, Purple Lobster was many Individuals’ go-to for informal, inexpensive seafood. Because of choices like its popcorn shrimp and finally its beloved Cheddar Bay biscuits (which you can recreate at home with our recipe), this chain unfold throughout the U.S. and introduced coastal flavors inland. As a long time handed, nevertheless, client habits modified together with the financial system, and informal sit-down chains suffered from the speedy disappearance of the center class. A Might 2024 chapter submitting (usually blamed on Red Lobster’s overzealous endless shrimp promotion, not less than partly) signaled to many who the seafood chain was going underneath, however in September 2024, the tides turned.
This was due to Fortress Funding Group, which acquired the Purple Lobster model by way of a newly created entity, RL Investor Holdings LLC, and offered $60 million to assist the struggling chain get again on its proverbial ft. The month prior, Purple Lobster additionally welcomed a brand new CEO — Damola Adamolekun, previously the CEO of P.F. Chang’s — and started closing eating places to streamline operations.
Purple Lobster formally exited chapter on September 16, 2024 and has taken steps to revitalize its model. One in every of these was trimming down the menu whereas reintroducing outdated favorites, like hush puppies, lobster pappardelle pasta, and even Lobsterfest, an annual menu promotion that wrapped up its preliminary return on April 20, 2025. The corporate additionally up to date its tartar sauce recipe and notably discontinued its notorious countless shrimp promotion, which was made a everlasting menu fixture previous to the chapter submitting. To draw millennial and Gen Z diners, the chain may even begin “providing premium substances and a extra vibrant eating environment,” per Food Chain Magazine.
Lengthy John Silver’s storefront throughout daytime – Jhvephoto/Getty Pictures
Lengthy John Silver’s, now identified for its fried pollock and hush puppies, opened its first location in 1969 in Lexington, Kentucky. Over the next 10 years, its footprint grew to over 1,000 eating places. CNN Money wrote that the chain “popularized the thought of seafood as quick meals,” however that recognition apparently waned not lengthy after the article’s 1998 publishing. Actually, Lengthy John Silver’s filed for chapter that very same 12 months (possible as a result of immense debt it acquired after going non-public in 1989), and as just lately as 2017, the model got here underneath hearth for promoting low-quality meals. So, what has modified to allow a Lengthy John Silver’s resurgence?
The primary signal of a revival got here in 2016 when the model revealed an up to date, extra mature brand at a conference in Louisville, Kentucky (which additionally got here with a uniform vogue present). Seven years later, the corporate introduced on a brand new CEO, Nate Fowler — who introduced expertise from main firms like Nike and US Financial institution — and the change in management could have impressed yet one more model refresh.
Lengthy John Silver’s additionally made some menu enhancements in 2023, like utilizing thicker fish and updating the marination course of for its hen. As revealed in a June 2024 report from QSR, the chain moreover plans to deal with “enhancing belongings, upgrading expertise, and remodeling unit economics for franchisees” transferring ahead. The report additionally highlighted the restaurant’s app and loyalty program, often known as the “Seacret Society,” by way of which prospects can acquire factors and earn rewards. Self-service kiosks and digital menu boards are additionally on the docket, as are plans to maneuver away from the restaurant’s acquainted (however arguably outdated) “fish shack” aesthetic.
Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips signal on storefront – Eric Glenn/Shutterstock
Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips, based in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio, was named after a British actor, prone to sign to American diners that the seafood chain aimed to supply an genuine English expertise. (That is notably evident on an archived model of its website, which makes reference to its “outsized french fries often known as ‘Chips.'”) Its specialties included battered shrimp, fish, and hen, and at its peak within the ’70s, it operated nearly 800 areas. So, whatever happened to Arthur Treacher’s?
The (type of) quick reply is that conflicts between England and Iceland within the mid twentieth century made English-imported cod — the popular fish in traditional fish and chips — unsustainably costly for the American chain, resulting in its acquisition by Mrs. Paul’s Kitchen Inc., a frozen fish and veggie producer, in 1979. This marked the start of the model’s gradual decline (which included a 1980 chapter submitting), and by 2021, just one Arthur Treacher’s remained, situated in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Luckily, this ’70s throwback is angling for a return.
To this point, this comeback is characterised by the opening of a number of new areas. How the chain expanded from its one remaining location to 2 is not completely clear, however on March 30, 2025, the Arthur Treacher’s Facebook web page introduced that its third location could be opening in Cleveland Heights, Ohio on April 1 (an occasion Cleveland.com clarified was “no April Idiot’s joke”). Moreover, sizzling canine mainstay Nathan’s Well-known has owned the Arthur Treacher’s model since 2021, leading to a few hybrid areas, in addition to plans to implement ghost kitchens. As James Walker, Nathan’s SVP of eating places, advised QSR across the time of acquisition, “We’re ensuring the entire meals is memorable, craveable, and Instagrammable.”
