Wow.. that's quite possibly the funniest thing I've ever read.

Down the road from me in Delaware... we have... in a row on a single pad, TGI Fridays, Lone Star, Olive Garden and "The Lob" (i'll get to the lob in a second).

I drove down there thurs night to head towards downtown Wilmington and they were PACKED. Like 7pm and the parking lot was jammed.

Further down is the Romano's Macaroni Grille and Chilis, Applebee's, Bennigan's ... I grew up in CA and Macaroni grilles are everywhere. I never went, once. What am I missing?

FWIW, there are a lot of local diners, bbq and pizza/steak joints around there as well.

"The Lob" - ok.. my brother lives in Manhattan and anyone who spent more than 2 minutes on the island knows that Manhattan has some of the best food on earth. Quality, style etc. It's all really good.

Manhattan has one Red Lobster, in Times Square. In the center they have this gigantic rotating lobster. I can't make this up.

So my brother's birthday, every year, is spent at "The Lob" as he calls it, to coincide with "Shrimpfest" - the all you can eat, moderately priced and even more moderately tasting shrimp deal.

It's the only time his girlfriend lets him go to Red Lobster - he's done it for ~6 years now for his birthday.