Darden Restaurants Names President of Bahama Breeze and New Development Leader

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan 7, 2003 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ --

Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), the world's largest casual dining restaurant company, today announced that Laurie Burns, 40, currently Senior Vice President of Development for the Company, will become President of Bahama Breeze restaurants.

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The Caribbean-inspired concept features stone-hearth ovens, saute chefs in large display kitchens and a delightful selection of seafood, chicken, beef, pork and pastas prepared with a contemporary island twist. The company expects to grow by six to 10 restaurants per year over the next three years, ultimately growing to about 150 restaurants.

Darden also announced that Mike Ellis, 40, Senior Vice President of Development for Olive Garden, is being promoted to replace Ms. Burns as corporate Senior Vice President, Development. They will work together during a transition period, with their respective appointments effective March 15, 2003.

During her four-year tenure at Darden Development, Burns worked closely with operations overseeing extensive remodeling projects at Darden's core- growth companies -- Red Lobster and Olive Garden. She also oversaw development and construction of over 150 new restaurants for all four Darden operating companies including its two emerging growth businesses, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Bar. Mr. Ellis worked with Burns overseeing Olive Garden development during this time. He led Olive Garden's Development area, completing the successful RevItalia rebranding initiative and helped develop the distinctive Tuscan farmhouse design.

"Laurie's and Mike's promotions further strengthen our leadership structure and reflect Darden's strong commitment to developing diverse talent internally through career and leadership development," said Darden Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joe Lee. "We are proud of the rich diversity of talent and backgrounds of the senior leadership team, complimented by Dick's operational expertise."

Burns initially joined Darden in 1999 as Vice President of Development for Red Lobster, where she achieved all new and remodeled restaurant opening goals. After being promoted to lead all of Darden Development in 2000, she led the critical areas of real estate, market development, asset management, restaurant remodels, facilities, design and construction for all Darden operating companies. She will continue to serve on the Darden Executive Management Team.

Before joining Darden, Burns was Regional Vice President for Homestead Village, an extended-stay hotel company, Director of Real Estate for Apple South, and held various development positions at Taco Bell.

With his promotion, Ellis will also join the company's Executive Management Team. He joined Darden in 1998 as Vice President/Team Leader for Olive Garden Development and was promoted to Senior Vice President in October 2000. Previously, Ellis managed development and growth for DF&R Restaurants (Don Pablo's) and spent six years in various development positions with T.G.I. Friday's.

"Laurie's proven leadership skills will be well complemented by the strong culinary, operations and finance talent at Bahama Breeze, and Mike's outstanding leadership in our Development area will ensure a great transition," said Darden President and Chief Operating Officer Dick Rivera, to whom both executives will report. "Laurie built a strong team that delivered outstanding results working directly with all of our operations teams. Mike has worked closely with Laurie to deliver outstanding results for the company."

Bahama Breeze is defining an emerging Caribbean cuisine segment in casual dining, just as Darden defined casual dining seafood with Red Lobster, Italian cuisine with Olive Garden and is defining casual dining barbecue with Smokey Bones. At the heart of Bahama Breeze is its "kitchen-forward" philosophy, with chef-prepared offerings and all entrees made fresh from scratch.

Positioned within the upscale casual dining segment, Bahama Breeze has been rated "excellent" in Orlando's Zagat dining guide every year since 1997 and earned the same honor in Miami's Zagat dining guide this year. The company has won numerous culinary awards for its innovative and creative cuisine. Bahama Breeze currently enjoys average restaurant sales over 50 percent greater than the $3.2 million average for casual dining restaurant companies listed in Nation's Restaurant News' 2002 Top 100 restaurant company rankings.

Darden Restaurants, Inc., headquartered in Orlando, FL, owns and operates over 1,200 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones restaurants with annual sales of $4.4 billion and more than 135,000 employees.

Forward-looking statements in this news release, if any, are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Certain important factors could cause results to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements, including the impact of changing economic or business conditions, the impact of competition, the availability of favorable credit and trade terms, the impact of changes in the cost or availability of food and real estate, government regulation, construction costs, weather conditions and other factors discussed from time to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Darden Restaurants, Inc.

Jim DeSimone, +1-407-245-4567, or Analysts, Matthew Stroud, +1-407-245-5550, both of Darden Restaurants, Inc. /Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030107/FLTU017-a http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030107/FLTU017-b AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 212-782-2840 /Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/gh/cnoc/comp/105228.html http://www.darden.com

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