Olive Garden – Red Lobster ribbon cutting

Our neighbors to the south in Palm Coast celebrated the grand opening of their Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants and Historic City News was on hand for the ribbon cutting on Wednesday, March 9th.

The prototype restaurants located on East SR-100 at Palm Coast Landing are a combination of the two most popular brands of Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI)

Although the restaurants share one building and one kitchen, there are two separate entrances to the themed restaurants — each offering their own unique cuisine and atmosphere. The dining rooms are separate and servers do not allow customers to cross-order from the other menu.

The restaurants opened for dinner on March 7th, and both restaurants will serve lunch and dinner beginning tomorrow, Saturday, March 12th.

After the two ribbon cuttings Wednesday, the restaurants treated local officials to a taste of what everyone has been waiting for.

Darden is the world’s largest full-service restaurant company. They own and operate 1,800 restaurants that generate more than $7 billion in annual sales and employ approximately 180,000 people. Darden restaurant brands include Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52.