Darden Restaurants may consider opening franchise operations of its popular midscale concepts Olive Garden and Red Lobster in "nontraditional" locations like airports and college campuses, according to executives answering questions during the company's annual investor-analyst conference, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
The executives, who included President/COO Drew Madsen, declined to provide any timetable for such a move. The main emphasis of the conference was on Darden's pilot Olive Garden/Red Lobster combination restaurant, scheduled to open this spring in Palm Coast, FL, which will have the two concepts side by side with separate entrances and dinign rooms, but a common production kitchen.