Red Lobster also offered a lower-priced children's menu. Questionnaires and focus groups also convinced Red Lobster of the importance of good service to securing follow-up trade.
It held a four-day training course for servers before each restaurant opened and then required the staff to attend follow-up monthly classes. After waiters and waitresses were encouraged to display individuality in serving customers rather than relying on mechanical recitations of what the restaurant had to offer.
The uniform of shirts and slacks was replaced by a maroon apron under which servers wore clothing of their own choice. Fearing saturation in the seafood market, however, General Mills had decided years earlier to expand its restaurant group, which included York Steak House as well as Red Lobster.
By the end of there were eight such units, and by mid there were , making it General Mills' fastest-growing business and probably the fastest-growing major chain in the United States. The public, however, flocked to these outlets. The menu, in , included not only Italian specialties such as veal piccata, baked lasagna, and chicken marsala but a variety of veal, beef, and seafood dishes.
A limited-menu Olive Garden Cafe concept in food court settings at regional shopping malls was being tested. There were seven such units in late After three years of development and test marketing the restaurant group launched China Coast in as the first national Chinese food chain.
This eatery opened with an eight-page menu, in Newsweek's words, "about as long as the list of emperors in the Ming Dynasty. Eventually the China Coast chain grew to 51, but it failed to thrive and was ordered closed in General Mills decided in to spin off its restaurant operations into a new company so that it could concentrate more on its consumer food products.
Lee, the chairman and chief executive officer, named the new company Darden Restaurants in honor of his mentor and Red Lobster's founder. Stockholders received one share of Darden Restaurants common stock for each share of General Mills common stock they held. One securities analyst said that the restaurants had been accounting for only one-quarter of General Mills' operating profits while absorbing half of the company's capital spending for expansion and renovation.
Darden Restaurants indicated in early that the China Coast experience would not keep it from trying other ethnic formats. Lee predicted that, whether Bahama Breeze went into operation or not, Darden Restaurants would add at least two chains to its repertoire by Darden Restaurants executives expressed confidence that they were on the right track toward long-term robust growth.
The trend toward casual dining, it argued, was reflected in the less formal dress code in the workplace and would continue in years to come. Moreover, the company noted that to year-olds were the most frequent visitors to casual dining restaurants, and that the population aged 45 and older was expected to grow by 40 million through At the end of fiscal , Darden Restaurants was operating 1, restaurants in every state except Alaska.
A total of 73 were in Canada. Red Lobster restaurants were being remodeled, with weathered wood accented by nautical artifacts for a wharfside effect, to be completed by the end of fiscal Despite the company's positive outlook for the future, Darden Restaurants began to experience financial setbacks in due to market saturation. As such, the company was forced to shutdown some of its poor performing restaurants.
Lee commented on the restructuring in a Nation's Restaurant News article claiming, "There are some situations where we oversaturated and there were some areas where the market changed.
Determined to get Darden Restaurants back on track, management focused on reviving the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains and also eyeballed its Bahama Breeze concept to bolster sales. The following year, the company established the Culinary Institute of Tuscany in Italy. The facility was created to train Olive Garden chefs in an authentic Italian environment. New Red Lobster restaurants were opened with open floor plans and larger bar areas. Olive Garden restaurants also received a new look and were designed to resemble a Tuscan farmhouse.
The restaurant could seat and had a U-shaped bar in the center. Decorated similar to a mountain lodge, the outlet catered to sports fans with 40 televisions throughout the restaurant and monitors at each table.
Having successfully overcome the sluggish sales of and , Darden began to actively pursue new store openings. Darden Restaurants entered the new millennium on solid financial ground.
During the year, Red Lobster and Olive Garden achieved their tenth and 23rd consecutive quarter of sales increases, respectively. The company as a whole recorded its 14th consecutive quarter of earnings increases. The company posted its best financial year to date in fiscal The number of Bahama Breeze restaurants rose to 21, while nine Smokey Bones were in operation--national expansion for the sports concept was scheduled to begin in In addition to its financial gains, the company was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 50 companies for minorities for the third year in a row.
Darden's strategy for and beyond included a constant reviving of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains, expansion of existing new concepts, and the acquisition and development of new concepts. According to Darden, casual dining sales were projected to increase between 6 to 8 percent over the next ten years. Although the American economy began faltering in , the company claimed that historically, the casual dining industry had weathered past economic downturns quite well and that sales had grown during the recession.
As such, Darden management remained confident that the company would experience success in the years to come. Principal Competitors: Brinker International Inc. Toggle navigation. User Contributions:. Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name:.
E-mail: Show my email publicly. Human Verification:. Public Comment: characters. As of May 29, , the Company also had 50 restaurants operated by independent third parties pursuant to area development and franchise agreements.
Olive Garden's menu includes a range of authentic Italian foods featuring fresh ingredients and a selection of imported Italian wines. LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants feature a range of menu items, including fresh steaks and chicken, as well as salmon, shrimp, ribs, pork chops, burgers and prime rib. Contact Info. United States. Executive Leadership. Eugene I. Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer.
Ricardo Cardenas. President, Chief Operating Officer. Rajesh Vennam. Todd A. President - LongHorn Steakhouse. Daniel J. President - Olive Garden. New Stories. A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that a nonprofit that advocates for better minimum wages for tipped workers lacks standing to pursue claims that Darden Restaurants Inc discriminates against women and nonwhite workers by paying them the lowest hourly wages allowed Darden Restaurants Inc, the world's largest full-service restaurant operator, was hit with a lawsuit on Thursday claiming its policy of paying servers the lowest hourly wages allowed by law has a disparate impact on women and non-white workers.
A worker advocacy group on Tuesday filed a complaint claiming Darden Restaurants Inc's policy of encouraging customers to tip servers and paying them the lower minimum wage for tipped employees causes workers to be subjected to sexual harassment and pay discrimination.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the insider trading conviction and five-year prison sentence of famed Las Vegas sports gambler William "Billy" Walters, even as it chastised an FBI agent for leaking grand jury information about the case.
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