date:May 08, 2014
It's the end for Darden Restaurants' combination of Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants.
Two of the six combo operations, in Thomasville, Ga. and Beaufort, S.C., closed over the weekend. Darden will convert four others, including one in Palm Coast, into stand-alone Olive Gardens.
Darden said it would no longer operate the hybrids because of its plans to sell or spin off Red Lobster.
Darden launched the experiment three years ago in smaller markets. In the set-up, Olive Garden and Red Lob