{"id":447873,"date":"2026-02-04T04:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447873\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T04:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:40:07","slug":"darden-to-close-all-remaining-bahama-breeze-locations-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447873\/","title":{"rendered":"Darden to close all remaining Bahama Breeze locations nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando-based Darden Restaurants announced Tuesday it would be closing all of its remaining Bahama Breeze locations nationwide, ending the brand after 30 years.<\/p>\n

Half of the 28 Bahama Breeze locations across the country will be converted into Darden\u2019s other restaurant brands over the next 12 to 18 months and are expected to continue operating until any temporary closures are needed to convert them, the company said. The other 14 will be permanently closed as of April 5.<\/p>\n

Darden said it doesn\u2019t expect the closures to have a material impact on its financial results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company believes the conversion locations are great sites that will benefit several of the brands in its portfolio,\u201d Darden said. \u201cGoing forward, the primary focus will continue to be on supporting team members, including placing as many as possible in roles within the Darden portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first Bahama Breeze location opened on International Drive in 1996 and was an instant hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis creative Caribbean restaurant proves that mega-corporations can do good food if they want to,\u201d wrote the Orlando Sentinel\u2019s food critic at the time, Scott Joseph.<\/p>\n

Industry analysts in 1998 said<\/a> Bahama Breeze\u2019s Florida locations averaged sales of at least $6 million a year, twice the average at each of Darden\u2019s more established chains, Red Lobster and Olive Garden.<\/p>\n

But the brand has recently been in trouble.<\/p>\n

Darden closed<\/a> 15 Bahama Breeze locations across the eastern United States in May, saying that it would allow the brand to focus on its highest performing restaurants and strengthen the its overall performance. But its nine locations in the Orlando metro area had been spared.<\/p>\n

John Gordon, a longtime industry analyst based in San Diego, said Bahama Breeze\u2019s fall is in part due to the relatively limited popularity of Caribbean food in the U.S. It was also about balancing real estate costs versus profitably \u2014 a major problem for Darden, since the chain is one of the larger brands in its portfolio in terms of square footage per location.<\/p>\n

But he said larger industry-wide problems are also to blame, including consumers who make less than $50,000 annually spending less due to inflation. Consumers in their mid-to-late twenties are also not able to financially establish themselves and spend as much as previous generations were able to do at that age.<\/p>\n

Gordon said Darden\u2019s priorities right now are taking care of their existing brands and finding new, exciting brands that they can bring on board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know that Olive Garden is growing older,\u201d he said of the Italian chain\u2019s aging customer base.\u00a0 \u201cSome of the customers are transitioning when they get older, they don\u2019t go out to eat as much. \u2026 So they know that they have to be investing in other hot up-and-coming concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando-based Darden Restaurants announced Tuesday it would be closing all of its remaining Bahama Breeze locations nationwide, ending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[162333,28,2808,3286,198844,2558,983,6011,13677,98480,4322,69695,65411,210368,5262,2628],"class_list":{"0":"post-447873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-altamonte-springs","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-food-drink","12":"tag-kissimmee","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-osceola-county","18":"tag-restaurants","19":"tag-sanford","20":"tag-seminole-county","21":"tag-sentinel-restaurants","22":"tag-social","23":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}