William B. "Bill" Darden was an American entrepreneur best known for founding the Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns several casual dining restaurant chains in the United States.
Born in 1919 in Waycross, Georgia, Darden entered the restaurant business at a young age. He opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in his hometown of Waycross when he was just 19 years old, defying the segregation norms of the time by refusing to segregate customers by race.
In 1968, Bill Darden founded Red Lobster In Lakeland, Florida. His vision was to create a casual dining seafood restaurant that would offer high-quality, affordable seafood to landlocked areas of the United States. The concept was successful, and Darden expanded Red Lobster throughout the Southeastern United States.
In 1970, Darden sold Red Lobster to General Mills, but he stayed on as a partner and continued to play a role in the company's development. Under the General Mills umbrella, the Red Lobster chain expanded rapidly across the country.
In the 1980s, General Mills decided to branch out into other restaurant concepts. The Olive Garden Italian restaurant chain was launched in 1982, followed by others like China Coast in 1990. These chains, along with Red Lobster, formed part of the company's restaurant division, which was named Darden Restaurants in 1995 in honor of Bill Darden, acknowledging his instrumental role in building the company's restaurant business.
Bill Darden passed away in 1994, but his legacy lives on in Darden Restaurants, Inc., which has grown to become one of the largest full-service restaurant companies in the world. As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, the company owns and operates several well-known restaurant brands, including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, and Eddie V's.
Comments