| Type | Wholly owned subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Casual dining |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Headquarters | Orange County, Florida, U.S. |
| Products | Italian-American cuisine Pasta, Salads |
| Parent | Darden Restaurants |
| Website | olivegarden.com |
Olive Garden is an American restaurant chain specializing in Italian-American cuisine. It is a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants, Inc., which is headquartered in an unincorporated area in Orange County, Florida, near Orlando.[1] Olive Garden operates more than 730 locations globally.
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The first Olive Garden was opened by General Mills on December 13, 1982, in Orlando. By 1989, General Mills had opened 145 restaurants, making it one of the fastest-growing units in the company's restaurant holdings. While not a critical success, it was popular, and its per-store sales soon matched sister company Red Lobster. The company eventually became the largest chain of Italian-themed full-service restaurants in the US.
General Mills spun off its restaurant holdings as Darden Restaurants, a stand-alone company, in 1995. Olive Garden is Darden's most value oriented chain with an average 2009 check per person of $15.00 (USD) versus over $90 (USD) at its sibling Capital Grille.[2]
As of 2 February 2011[update], the company operates over 730 restaurants globally.[3] Most Canadian restaurants have been closed except for a few in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Calgary, Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta; and Langley, British Columbia.
Newer restaurants are styled after a farmhouse in the town of Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, on the grounds of the Rocca delle Macie winery.[4] The farmhouse is home to the Riserva di Fizzano restaurant adjoining the company's Culinary Institute of Tuscany which was founded in 1999.[4][4][5][6]
As part of a February 2011 Darden analyst conference, the parent group announced it intended to add more than 200 Olive Garden locations in the following few years.[3] The announcement came after a previous announcement that the company would be expanding into potential new international markets for the chain, including the Middle East and Asia, due to the maturity of the North American market. The company also announced it would begin licensing franchising partnerships, a new direction for the chain and its parent which had traditionally relied on expansion via company owned locations exclusively.[7]
Parent company Darden also announced it was going to begin co-locating Olive Garden and sibling chain Red Lobster locations. The new format stores are designed for smaller market locations and will have separate entrances and dining areas but operate a single kitchen and support areas. The dining areas of the new format will be half the standard area found in more traditional Darden chains, but the actual building will be larger than stand alone operations of the chain. Menus will also remain separate, with customers only able to order from the location they are seated in.[8]
The original slogan for Olive Garden was "Good Times, Great Salad, Olive Garden". This was used when their main advertised product was the endless salad entree. When soup and bread sticks were added onto this menu item, the saying was changed to "When you're here, you're Family".
The menu is developed at its Tuscany Institute in Italy and is inspired by the local cuisine in the region.[6]
Olive Garden serves Italian-American cuisine including pasta dishes, steaks and salads. The company heavily advertises its bread stick product and centers its lunch menu around it. Additionally, the company advertises that its soups are made fresh in each location daily instead of importing them from a commissary or outside vendor.[5]
In June 2010, Olive Garden began to import parts of menu formats from its sibling chain Season-52; it began selling smaller desserts portions which it called "dolcini". These new products were modeled after Season-52's "mini-indulgences" product line.[9]
Although Olive Garden advertises heavily of having a cooking institute in Tuscany, many news outlets have reported that, in fact, there is no institute or even school. Olive Garden does send all of its managers to Tuscany each year, but they stay in a rented hotel and spend only a few hours at a local restaurant in its off-season.[10][11][12][13]
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