Strea Sanchez has a date with Red Lobster every Tuesday.

“It’s Snow Crab Legs Tuesday!” Sanchez said in the parking lot of the restaurant’s Littleton location on Tuesday afternoon. “I just want it steamed. I don’t really care for the roasted garlic butter.”

Sanchez’s friend, Terry Dawson, nodded her head, but she prefers the restaurant’s steak.

And the cheddar bay biscuits.

“I’m a big carnivore,” Dawson said, grinning. “These are the stuff you just can’t get anywhere else.”

Sanchez and Dawson told The Denver Gazette they have been going to Red Lobster “all their lives.” 

But they’ll have four fewer Red Lobster restaurants to go to after the company closed locations across the nation on Monday, including four in metro Denver.

More than 80 restaurants “temporarily” closed in 27 states, according to the restaurant’s website. The seafood chain’s presence took a hit in metro areas such as Denver, San Antonio, Indianapolis and Sacramento, Calif.

The four Colorado restaurants affected are in Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Lone Tree and Denver.

Red Lobster, which has yet to publicly speak about the closures, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It’s unknown if more restaurants in the state will close.

The Littleton eatery — Dawson and Sanchez’s go to place — was not on the closure list.  

It’s not immediately clear how many workers are affected. 

The closures don’t appear to be temporary, as a restaurant liquidator is selling off items from about 50 closed Red Lobster locations this week. All four closed Colorado locations have their items up for auction.

Posters on the social media site Nextdoor complained that the Lone Tree restaurant closed suddenly and employees were not given notice. The company did not file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act  (WARN) notice with the Colorado Secretary of State, as required by law.  

One customer complained she had gone in for Mother’s Day.

“And it was clear they had staffing issues. We walked out after waiting almost an hour and a half for food,” she said.

Auction photos for the Lone Tree location on Westview Road and Wheat Ridge on Wadsworth Boulevard showed the chain’s iconic live lobster tanks may be included — but buyers would have to take all the rest of the restaurant’s goods along with it.

It’s a “winner take all” auction, where top bidders get all the contents of a restaurant instead of individual items. 

The liquidator TAGeX listed items like restaurant-grade ovens, warmers, refrigerators, freezers, dining sets, bar items, and commercial deep fryers. Pictures also showed that booths, tables and hostess desks are available.

Perishable food items are not part of the sale.

The auction began Monday and will close on Thursday, and winners have to pick up all of the restaurant’s items by Friday on their own.

The auction site has gotten more than a million views a day, liquidating firm TAGeX CEO Neal Sherman said, and he expects to see the biggest auction the liquidator has ever done, as wholesalers or budding restaurant brands look for a sweet deal.

“We’re going to see a lot of independent restaurant operators who may have one concept or two concepts and want to expand,” Sherman said, “and see an opportunity to buy a store’s worth or restaurant’s worth of equipment for a deep discount.”

The auctioneer also handled the liquidation sale of buffet chain Sweet Tomatoes, one of the first national restaurants to shutter because of the pandemic. While Sherman said he doesn’t know if more Red Lobster locations will close, he added there are many casual food chains in a similar position and at risk of closing locations, too.

The Orlando-based seafood chain has been financially struggling, especially after it expanded its “endless shrimp” deal. High customer demand for the all-you-can-eat promotion was one of the leading reasons why the company lost millions last year.

Red Lobster was founded in 1968 in Lakeland, Fla. — a city between Tampa and Orlando — and has grown to more than 700 locations worldwide. It used to be a sister restaurant of Olive Garden’s before Orlando-based parent company Darden Restaurants, Inc. sold Red Lobster a decade ago for $2.1 billion to Golden Gate Capital to focus more on its Italian food chain.

Red Lobster has seen a myriad of different management over the years.

Its largest shareholder, Thai Union Group, one of the biggest seafood suppliers, announced earlier in the year that it aims to drop its investment in the chain, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, higher interest rates and rising costs for food, material and employees.

The company first invested in Red Lobster in 2016 and raised its stake in 2020 to become the largest shareholder with 49% ownership of the company.

Golden Gate Capital exited in 2020 and Seafood Alliance and Red Lobster leadership took a 36% and 15% stake, respectively.

Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said the pandemic contributed to “prolonged negative financial contributions to Thai Union and its shareholders” after its January announcement to divest. The company reported a $19 million loss in Red Lobster during the first nine months of 2023.

Red Lobster raised prices for its iconic promotion from $20 to $25 to minimize its losses. 

The chain is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy, unnamed sources told Bloomberg News last month. It could help the company renegotiate many of its leases and other long-term contracts.

Red Lobster still has 11 open locations across Colorado, including in Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Greeley, Longmont, Northglenn and Pueblo and two restaurants in both Aurora and Colorado Springs.

At its Littleton location, Jeff and Kathy Babb, who had been going to Red Lobster for roughly two decades, said they can’t quite believe that the company’s “endless shrimp” deal might have contributed to its woes.

“Sure, there are people who will eat too much shrimp,” Kathy Babb said. But, in a restaurant business, “you don’t give food away,” she added.  

Jeff, who said he loves the restaurant’s trout and biscuits, said he hopes the chain will survive, particularly the one in Littleton. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.