The typical lunch rush runs through the noon hour. Sunday brunch spills into early afternoon. By 3pm, most restaurants have emptied.
On a recent Sunday, however, staff members posted outside Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. inform walk-in guests of a little wait – an hour and 45 minutes.
“Saturday and Sunday we’re busy open to close,” says General Manager Theresa Stagl, adding that few people seem to mind. “That’s the fun thing about Cannery Row – there’s so much to do. That’s why guests are OK with signing up.”
Skeptics might dismiss Bubba Gump as a mere theme restaurant chain, the only one inspired by a Hollywood film – the 1994 hit Forrest Gump, in case you somehow missed it. And the dining rooms are embellished with giddy displays of memorabilia, images, quotable lines and more from the movie.
But the brand turned 30 in 2026, with more than 20 locations across the U.S. and another 11 around the world in a market where many other themed restaurants have floundered. Clearly the chain is doing something right.
Stagl calls herself a “second generation Gumper,” with the company for 13 years. She points out that the concept is family-friendly, and from the number of times exuberant wait staff converge on tables with a piece of cake, Bubba Gump has become a celebratory destination.
“I like the atmosphere,” she adds. “Going out to eat is special.”
One can’t help but have fun. The decorations start conversations and – if guests are game and have seen the movie – the servers will challenge a table to a round of Forrest Gump trivia.
Here’s a bit of trivia about the chain itself. The very first Bubba Gump opened on March 23, 1996 on Cannery Row. It hosted a 30th birthday party earlier this year.
“It was amazing – better than I could have imagined,” Stagl says. “The building turned 100 years old this year. We need to have another party.”
The building housed a chain known as Rusty Pelican, of which only one has survived. A year after Forrest Gump reached theaters, a struggling seafood purveyor, Anthony Zolezzi, obtained rights to use Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Rusty Pelican’s John Barnett thought it would make for a good brick-and-mortar concept and became the restaurant’s founding CEO.
Of course, the movie’s Bubba Blue character had already established the foundations of a menu, famously ticking off 21 different ways to prepare shrimp. The regular menu at Bubba Gump features shrimp mac and cheese, shrimp ceviche, coconut shrimp, scampi, jambalaya, gumbo and more.
Stagl has high praise for the gumbo. She started at the company’s Galveston location, where each year the restaurant entered that city’s gumbo competition. “We actually won it a couple of times,” she says.
Stuffed shrimp is a throwback dish, appropriate to the theme. The shellfish are butterflied and filled with a blend of crab, lobster butter and Monterey jack cheese. A side of seafood-stuffed “hush pups” are a nod to a Southern staple, but with a delicate pop of white fish and shrimp.
Yes, there are non-shrimp options. It is a menu catering to a broad range of tastes. But as Bubba told Forrest, “Shrimp is the fruit of the sea.”
Of course, that line might be lost on Gen Z guests, who were born in the years following the premiere of Forrest Gump. Stagl laughs as she speaks of servers swapping movie trivia for stumpers of more recent vintage – SpongeBob, for instance.
But the movie endures, as does the restaurant concept it spawned. For the 30th anniversary, some favorites from previous decades returned to the lineup, such as a Lt. Dan’s Drunken Shrimp, a little bit of everything tossed in a bourbon sauce and served over grits, as well as a Cajun shrimp appetizer.
“It wasn’t on the menu and guests were still asking about it,” Stagl notes.
She can repeat the story about several dishes. When Bubba Gump dropped stuffed shrimp, guests demanded its return. And perhaps that’s an indication as to the longevity of an aging theme. It continues to be fun.
“Now grandparents are bringing their grandkids,” Stagl says, citing the diversity of the menu and the friendly Southern hospitality. “What you’re looking for, you can find it.”
You can even bring home a box of chocolates, without a guide as to what’s inside, because – well, you know.