DRI

Darden Restaurants, Inc.

A company that runs some of America's best-known sit-down restaurant chains, including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, and Ruth's Chris. It traces back to 1938, when founder Bill Darden opened a small luncheonette in Georgia, and later launched Red Lobster in 1968 — deliberately in inland Lakeland, Florida, to prove seafood could thrive far from the coast. The company was spun off from General Mills in 1995 and carries its founder's name.