Sales were strong from nearly the day that the first Olive Garden opened. Every new location was a relatively instant success as well, and sales soon matched that of the then-sister company Red Lobster.
Parent company Darden, which also owns chains like LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, and The Capital Grille, was originally the restaurants arm of General Mills. All General Mills restaurant holdings were spun off into a stand-alone company in 1995, named Darden after Bill Darden, the founder of Red Lobster (which was itself sold off in July 2014).
If the rustic stone fa??ade of the restaurants reminds you of Tuscany, that???s exactly what it???s supposed to do. Restaurants are modeled after a farmhouse in the town of Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany.
For some reason they decided to forego ???Garden??? at the Lima location. There are also five restaurants in Mexico, one in Kuwait, and another in the S??o Paulo airport in Brazil.