We went to Red Lobster's $21.99 Endless Shrimp to see if it's really unlimited

Red Lobster Endless Shrimp 2017 3Hollis Johnson

A lot can happen in a year. 

One year ago, we dreamed the impossible dream: endless shrimp, for $21.99. For seven and a half hours at Red Lobster, we gorged ourselves on the pink "candy of the sea" in a variety of preparations. It was a saga of mythological proportion and effort — one wonders if the Argonauts could handle such a task.

And yet, the shrimpy sirens' call rang in our ears again as Red Lobster's annual promotion began anew. 

Last year, we left an innocent world thinking we would happily munch on crustaceans for a couple of hours; instead, we entered a murky, briny alternate existence where the shrimp never stops. Three-hundred and five shrimp later, we wearily emerged from Red Lobster on that fated September night in 2016 into the blinking lights of Times Square.

When we returned this year, we had a sneaking suspicion that we never truly escaped the madness that is shrimp eternal. Come with us on this harrowing tale of shrimp and sacrifice: Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp, 2017. 

We arrived at the Times Square Red Lobster on September 12, 2017.

Hollis Johnson

The light seemed eerily familiar, dancing on the chain's iconic red claws of destiny. 

We knew what we had to do: breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all shrimp. We'd done it before, last September — a time that now seemed both centuries away and all too near. 

Our goals were set. Last year, Hollis ate 162 shrimp, while Kate downed 143. This year, we were fighting against ourselves, with Hollis hoping to reach 175 and Kate determined to reach 150 — or die trying. 



Red Lobster's interior remained unchanged; a time capsule to the not-so-distant past.

Hollis Johnson

We were seated at the same booth as the year prior at 11:25 a.m. — as we slid across the maroon vinyl, it felt as though we had never left. These seats would be our safe harbor for the next seven hours, but had they been our prison for the last 12 months?

Had we, in fact, imagined the last year and all of its bizarre twists and turns in a shrimp-induced hallucination?

Even the soundtrack remained the same: a Mumford & Sons track played like a broken record in an empty casual seafood dining restaurant, echoing off the dark-stained wood. 

 



A shrimp delirium would explain what happened next.

Hollis Johnson

We had told Red Lobster that we had planned to return for this "Shrimpsgiving," so it is likely they who sent "Clawd" to greet us. 

Still, a grown man in a lobster suit did remarkably little to reassure us that we had not fallen into a gap in the space-time continuum. 

Clawd, in his unsettling generosity, came bearing gifts — most notable of which was an official shrimp scoreboard to help us keep track of our progress. 

The lobsterous beast left as soon as he arrived, raising many questions yet answering none. Had our eyes deceived us in the dark, windowless restaurant? 

Et tu, Clawd?




See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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