Free Republic

Retirees have lost their appetite for Cracker Barrel and Olive Garden since the pandemic — and it’s not clear when they’ll come back, according to the chains’ top brass. No amount of biscuits and gravy or unlimited pasta refills seems to be enough to entice the 65-and-older crowd as they continue to pinch pennies amid high inflation and duck the coronavirus, according to Rick Cardenas, chief executive of Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden. “I do believe that they were a little bit more spooked on the COVID side,” Cardenas told analysts on a Thursday conference call. “We’d love to...

Southern-based family-dining chain Cracker Barrel was blasted for going “woke” by some of its biscuits-and-gravy-eating customers after posting an image of a rainbow rocking chair to celebrate Pride Month. Aside from serving oversized portions of country staples, the chain is beloved for the Tennessee-made rocking chairs that line the porches at all Cracker Barrel trinket-filled Old Country Stores. Thus, the chain honored Pride Month in June with an Instagram photo of a rocking chair with each wood slat painted a different color of the rainbow in nod to the Pride flag. “Everyone is always welcome at our table (and our...

WASHINGTON — An American kidnapped two years ago in Yemen while helping coordinate aid for Unicef and the Red Cross also had a second, secret role: He was shipping materials for elite military commandos under a clandestine contract his employer had with the Pentagon. The arrangement with Special Operations forces has never been made public. {snip} Mr. Darden’s work offers a rare look into the shadowy world of military contractors that operate in lawless war zones like Yemen, Somalia and Libya. But arrangements like the one Transoceanic had with Special Operations forces can cast suspicion over aid workers, potentially putting...

A Franklin student who sexually assaulted two fellow volleyball team members on a school bus after a trip to a game in Northampton County was escorted to jail in tears after she pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery. Aerial Darden, who was 17 at the time of the offense and a senior team captain, organized a group that held down a 13-year-old teammate, placed a pillow over her face and touched her inappropriately. The victim was on her first trip with the team. The attack came after Darden and others held the arms and legs of...

With Darden Restaurants' (DRI) announcement that a remodel for its Olive Garden division has started, the main takeaway is a simple one — it's nowhere near to giving up on the Italian-themed chain. The other takeaway is that this latest attempt to spur customers to take a seat at its tables may well mean activist investors, who've been vocally at odds with management, received another reason to complain.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Darden Restaurants says it will sell its Red Lobster chain to investment firm Golden Gate Capital in a $2.1 billion cash deal. The company, which also owns Olive Garden, had announced late last year that it planned to either spin off or sell Red Lobster to improve its financial performance. Both Olive Garden and Red Lobster have been losing customers in recent years. The company has tried various menu changes and marketing campaigns in hopes of winning back business. Part of the problem is the growing popularity of chains like Chipotle, where customers feel they can...

Owner Darden Restaurants says the seafood chain is underperforming and wants to sell it. Red Lobster has failed to attract the number of higher-income diners that both Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse have.

High gasoline prices coupled with 2% payroll tax hikes is going to take a bite out of restaurant sales this year. For some chains the slump has already started. Consider Darden Restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steak House. Darden Restaurant Traffic is down an average 4.5, with Red Lobster leading the pack down 7.5%. Smaller Plates, Cheaper Items at Olive Garden At Olive Garden, Smaller, Cheaper Plates are on the way, along with new uniforms including a more contemporary black button-down shirt and black slacks. Don't worry, endless breadsticks remain. Olive Garden is also creating a...

Fret not, Olive Garden lovers: The “endless” breadsticks aren’t going away. But new management has big changes in store for the casual dining chain, which touts family-style Italian food and has struggled with declining sales. The chain's president, Dave George told investors on Tuesday the changes include creating a new logo and toning down its the “Old World Style," the Tuscan-style stonework and wooden archways that have been a signature part of Olive Garden restaurants since 2000. "You're not going to see stainless steel showing up tomorrow in a Tuscan Farmhouse," George said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Darden Restaurants Inc. won’t be looking as good as expected next week when the restaurant company is set to release its second-quarter earnings, it said Tuesday. The Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse parent lowered its profit and revenue projections for the quarter ended Nov. 25, blaming sour promotions in its eateries, Superstorm Sandy, its purchase of the Yard House USA chain and even its efforts to mitigate the coming costs of healthcare reform, also known as "Obamacare."

The owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants is putting more workers on part-time status in a test aimed at limiting costs from President Barack Obama's health care law. ~~snip~~ But it's notable because Darden Restaurants has, in the past, cooperated with first lady Michelle Obama on her push to reduce calories in menu items and offer healthy alternatives. The first lady spoke with Darden chief executive officer Clarence Otis last fall at an Olive Garden in Maryland. She also dined at an Olive Garden in Fort Worth, Texas on a Let's Move tour.

Uh oh! People are actually whispering this around town: “What did President Obama know and when did he know it?” I guess we’ll find out around noon. As if that’s not bad enough, now it appears that the Obamacare support (as first reported right here) that Lady M horse traded negotiated with Darden Restaurants – owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster - is coming unraveled as well. Apparently their waivers are going to expire because they didn’t cut enough fat, salt, sugar and taste out of their recipes to warrant an extension. Now they don’t think they can afford...

Analysts say many other companies, including the White Castle hamburger chain, are considering employing fewer full-timers because of key features of the Affordable Care Act scheduled to go into effect in 2014. Under that law, large companies must provide affordable health insurance to employees working an average of at least 30 hours per week. If they do not, the companies can face fines of up to $3,000 for each employee who then turns to an exchange — an online marketplace — for insurance.

A consequence of Obamacare. Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster) is cutting all of its workers to 30 hours to avoid having them fall under Obamacare requirements. 185,000 people with less hours. But think of all the new part time jobs Obama is creating! Many other companies will do the same.

Two big employers are planning a radical change in the way they provide health benefits to their workers, giving employees a fixed sum of money and allowing them to choose their medical coverage and insurer from an online marketplace. Sears Holdings Corp. and Darden Restaurants Inc. say the change isn't designed to make workers pay a higher share of health-coverage costs. Instead they say it is supposed to put more control over health benefits in the hands of employees. The approach will be closely watched by firms around the U.S. If it eventually takes hold widely, it might parallel the...

Nearly seventeen years ago, former NFL star and actor O.J. Simpson was shockingly acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. But now a district attorney at the centre of the case has alleged that Simpson’s lead defence lawyer tampered with a crucial piece of evidence – one of the infamous gloves that prosecutors said linked Simpson to the grisly double-murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. After The Juice struggled to fit the gloves on his hands – in one of the defining moments of the racially charged trial that captivated the nation –...

ANNISTON, Ala. -- Officials with the parent company of Olive Garden restaurants say they're sorry if a decision regarding an Alabama Kiwanis club's desire to display the American flag caused any concern. The comments come after 80-year-old Marti Warren of Anniston said she wasn't allowed to bring an American flag into an Olive Garden for a planned Kiwanis Club banquet in the east Alabama town of Oxford.

I was so fed up yesterday after hearing that Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants have been working with Michelle Obama on her "Let's Move" childhood obesity campaign and have decided to no longer offer french fries with children's meal menu items. I mere told them that I didn't appreciate their attempt to usurp my role as a parent, my children should be able to order fries on a night out at a restaurant if they would like to (because we eat nutritiously at home), and in the future my family will be eating at restaurants that honor my freedom...

Encouraged by Michelle Obama's campaign to reduce childhood obesity, the company that owns the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and four other popular restaurant chains is pledging to cut the calories and sodium in its meals and overhaul its kids' fare. Darden Restaurants Inc. was unveiling the changes Thursday, with the first lady on hand to lend support. The company will pledge to reduce the calories and sodium in all its meals by 10 percent over five years, and by 20 percent over 10 years. For children, French fries and sugar-sweetened beverages will become the exception and not the rule....

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...