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Red Lobster offers ‘Flavor Flav’s Faves’ as part of CrabfestRed Lobster offers ‘Flavor Flav’s Faves’ as part of Crabfest

The rapper’s hand-picked menu items are now a secret menu at the restaurant chain

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

July 2, 2024

2 Min Read
flavor flaves faves
Flavor Flav's FavesRed Lobster

Red Lobster is continuing its collaboration with Flavor Flav, the rapper who vowed to come to the struggling chain’s aid after it declared bankruptcy in May and starred in a commercial promoting its currently running Crabfest.

Now the Orlando, Fla.-based seafood chain is offering a secret menu called Flavor Flav’ Faves, featuring items the musical artist selected: Maine lobster tail, snow crab legs, garlic shrimp scampi, and bacon mac & cheese, plus choice of a side. Its price starts at $39.99 but varies by location.

The secret menu can only be ordered by asking servers for it by name.

In a press release announcing the menu, Flavor Flav explained his mission.

"As a long-time Red Lobster fan, I'm fired up to bring a little bit of my own flavor to fans with a meal featuring my seafood favorites," he said. "You gotta get to Red Lobster and give it a try because this signature meal is hype, boy!”

Last month, Flavor Flav took his family to Red Lobster and ordered the entire menu, according to an Instagram Post.

Red Lobster chief experience officer Sara Bittorf explained the chain’s motivation for teaming up with the entertainer.

"When you have someone like Flavor Flav who shows their love for a brand by ordering the entire menu, you know there is a lot more fun to be had," she said. "Flavor Flav's passion for Red Lobster is unmatched and we're excited to bring our guests a flavor experience unlike any other."

Related:Flavor Flav promotes Red Lobster’s Crabfest in new ad

Red Lobster’s bankruptcy declaration generated an outpouring of support for the brand, whose traffic was down by 30% since 2019 as of its May bankruptcy filing.

The chain has continued to close restaurants since then, but it’s also continuing to promote Crabfest as it continues to work through its bankruptcy with the hopes of selling the company to its major creditors.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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