The Untold Truth Of Red Robin

Especially in the chain restaurant market, it can be hard to stand out, but Red Robin and its blue-eyed bird mascot have been boasting their variety of gourmet burgers and unparalleled value for decades. They have been puttin' an egg on burgers since 1973, along with other unique ingredients and flavor pairings such as cheese sauce and fried jalapenos, luring burger lovers in to constantly try something new. 

With its over 560 locations between the U.S. and Canada, Red Robin is a pretty recognizable establishment. But despite Red Robin's big, in-your-face burgers and monster-sized shakes, the chain's beginnings were fairly humble. They've explored a lot of new, innovative things along the way, trying to make Red Robin the best burger chain around — not all of which turned out well for the burger joint. And even for those who head to their neighborhood Red Robin to consume copious amounts of steak fries on a weekly basis, there may still be a few things left to learn about the company. We took a deep dive into this burger joint to learn a bit more about it. This is the untold truth of Red Robin.

In 1979, business was going well for Kingen and his burger joint, growing in popularity among University of Washington students. The spot proved to be a hangout for many, including the two customers who launched the company's first franchise. 

Red Robin regulars, brothers Mike and Steve Snyder, loved the chain so much they opened the first franchise in Yakima, Washington, after forming the Snyder Group Company. The following year, the up-and-coming chain expanded into Portland, Oregon to open its second location and continued to grow from there. In 2000, the Snyder Group merged with Red Robin, and together opened the chain's 150th restaurant, continuing their nationwide expansion. Red Robin continued to grow, opening another 100 locations in the next four years.

There's still an operational Red Robin in Yakima, but not in its original building. The original franchised location was remodeled into a shopping plaza, now hosting shops and restaurants, and a new Red Robin building was constructed in 2014 not far from the original building. 

With the focus of gourmet burgers on the menu, Red Robin has constantly introduced new combos to impress their burger-loving guests. Often introducing something new and craveable, there are more than two dozen burgers on the menu, and over the years, Red Robin has utilized the help of youth cooks along the way to gain inspiration. 

Red Robin hosted their Kids Cook-Off contest annually for a few years, with the first competition held in 2006. In 2007, 11-year-old Joey Yarwick won the prize with his "Au Brie Burger," featuring melted brie cheese and au gratin potatoes on a toasted croissant, and it was put on the menu the following summer for Red Robin guests to try. 

The following year, Charlie Beckett, a 7-year-old from Idaho made up the "Holy-Peno Burger," featuring Pepper Jack cheese and jalapenos. Oddly enough, Red Robin still features a Burnin' Love Burger on the menu with Pepper Jack and fried jalapeno coins. The last mention of the contest in Red Robin's history listing the winners was in 2010 when 12-year-old Donovan Duggins won the grand prize with his "Mt. Vesuvius Burger." It appears the Red Robin test kitchen has taken recipe development into their own hands from now on though, since the registration website for the contest is now defunct.

One of Red Robin's most popular claims to fame is their bottomless fries. And while some may think it was a recent gimmick to attract more customers, it's actually been going strong for decades. In 1994 the chain introduced their bottomless steak fries concept, allowing guests to eat as many fries as they possibly could with their burger. Some guests take it even further and request an appetizer of fries to come out first before their main meal. 

But bottomless steak fries aren't the only thing you can consume absurd amounts of. You can also order bottomless garlic fries or sweet potato fries (for an upcharge). Or, if you're watching your waistline, bottomless broccoli is an option as well. 

And for some customers, those bottomless fries are serious business. According to one former Red Robin manager on Quora, those basket numbers can skyrocket. "One time we had a table of 3 regular size guys that went through 31 baskets of fries along with the meals they'd ordered," she wrote. "Ones like that will stick with you because you'd never think that they'd reach that amount."

There's something special that makes those bottomless fries so crave-worthy, making guests coming back to eat more. And the secret is in Red Robin's signature seasoning. 

Red Robin utilizes their own signature fry seasoning, featuring a variety of ingredients. The seasoning combines salt, dried cane syrup, sea salt, dried garlic, onion and tomato, paprika, yeast extract and natural smoke flavor. The ingredients list also mentions "spices" in the mix, but we'll never know what that means. It is, after all, a special proprietary blend only used in restaurants or sold online. 

And while we don't know the exact proportions of the seasoning's ingredients, we do know there's a whole lot of salt in the mix. According to the nutrition facts on the ingredient label, just ¼ teaspoon of seasoning will give you 300 milligrams of sodium, or 13 percent of your daily value. There are 210 milligrams of sodium in one order of their Bottomless Steak Fries, almost as much sodium as a Medium Fry from McDonald's, so be careful as you're chowing down. Basket after basket of those fries can really add up with that seasoning. 

Over the years, minimum wage spikes have not been on Red Robin's side, causing a slew of rash policy decisions to attempt to alleviate the effects. 

A lawsuit in 2015 eventually ended in a Red Robin franchise paying out $1.3 million to settle a class action lawsuit. According to The Morning Call, the franchise had allegedly been requiring servers to share their table tips with employees in the kitchen who assisted in food prep or expediting of orders. The Morning Call states, "The suit alleges the company paid its servers $2.83 or $3.33 per hour, then claimed a tip credit to make up the difference of the $7.25 an hour minimum wage. The kitchen workers were illegally being paid less than minimum wage and included in the tip pool to make up the difference, the suit claims. The servers sought to recover the share of tips paid to the kitchen workers." 

But that wasn't the only policy put in place to combat the effects of minimum wage hikes. According to Fox News, the chain eliminated the busser position from all of its restaurants in 2018. Chief Financial Officer, Guy Constant, told Fox News the change was needed to "address the labor increases we've seen," and, at the time, it was predicted the change could potentially save the company $8 million in 2018. Unfortunately, the change resulted in longer wait times for customers, ultimately dragging down customer satisfaction and numbers of return customers. 

Despite Red Robin's many clever advertising efforts, sales and guest counts were down after the first quarter of 2019, according to their newsroom. With a 3.3 percent decrease in restaurant revenue and a 5.5 percent decrease in guest counts, it's time to make a change. According to a news release, Red Robin was closing 10 restaurants, effective May 31, 2019, with seven of those restaurants located within a shopping mall. According to Nation's Restaurant News, Pattye Moore, who has served as interim CEO since April, said the company was "moving with urgency."

Red Robin had decided to halt new restaurant growth at the end of 2018 in order to refocus, but plans for continued growth in 2019 don't seem promising either. "We are actively working with The Cypress Group on selectively refranchising and reassessing our real estate portfolio," Moore told Nation's Restaurant News. 

In conjunction with the company's search for a new CEO, they announced in a press release that their 2019 strategic priorities are still focused on "reinforcing Red Robin's compelling Value proposition" to increase dine-in revenue and to improve the guest experience, but only time will tell if they'll plan for additional growth or continue to shut down more locations.