A Red Lobster in Valencia, California, is shutting down permanently, and Raising Cane's has already filed a demolition permit with Los Angeles County to build a drive-thru chicken restaurant in its place.
The seafood chain's location on The Old Road, an 8,173-square-foot site in the Valencia area of Los Angeles County, was scheduled to close on September 20. Raising Cane's moved quickly. Earlier in September, the fast-food chicken chain filed a demolition permit with the county for the property, signaling plans to tear down the existing structure and replace it with a new drive-thru restaurant featuring an outdoor patio, The U.S. Sun reported.
A Raising Cane's representative told the outlet that the chain is still in the permitting phase and does not have details to share yet. No opening date has been announced. The timeline for construction remains unknown.
The swap tells a familiar story about where American dining dollars are going, and where they aren't. Raising Cane's now operates 991 restaurants across the country and continues to grow. Red Lobster, once a staple of suburban family dining, has been shedding locations.
No reason for this particular Red Lobster closure appeared in the permit filings or the chain's public statements. The construction permit for the new Raising Cane's was also referenced, though the issuing agency was not specified.
What is clear: one brand is filing permits to build. The other is locking its doors. The market is making its own judgment, and no government program is going to reverse it.