[UPDATE] All Bahama Breeze Restaurants to Close Including Two in Metro Atlanta

The other shoe, err, sandal, has dropped with Darden Restaurants announcing Tuesday that it plans to close all of the remaining 28 Bahama Breeze Island Grille restaurants.  

Fifteen units of the casual dining chain were closed early last year and Darden indicated it was considering "strategic alternatives" for the brand, which could include a sale.

Darden launched the Caribbean-inspired Bahama Breeze in its home market of Orlando in 1996 and later expanded the brand nationwide, including several units in Georgia.  Metro Atlanta once had three locations, including those in Alpharetta, Duluth, and Kennesaw, but the Alpharetta unit near North Point Mall closed about a decade ago and is now home to a large Rooms to Go store.  

A new Bahama Breeze was planned for The Bridges at Jodeco, a large new project already home to Sprouts Farmers Market, Costco, and the futuristic elevated Chick-fil-A in Stockbridge in Henry County.  The restaurant officially withdrew from the development in early 2025.  

As of 2025, Bahama Breeze was the smallest chain in Darden's stable of ten brands when ranked by unit count. 

Darden's announcement Tuesday seems to suggest that it was unable to find a buyer for the brand.  Instead, Darden will permanently close all remaining locations, with half slated to be converted to other Darden concepts.  

In metro Atlanta, the Bahama Breeze in Duluth at 3590 Breckinridge Boulevard will close as of April 5 and will not convert to another Darden concept.  

The Bahama Breeze in Kennesaw at 755 Ernest Barrett Parkway will close at some point in the coming months, but its exact closure date and what concept or concepts it will be converted to have not yet been made public.  

Kennesaw is already home to LongHorn, Olive Garden, Chuy's, and Ruth's Chris, making conversions to those concepts highly unlikely. The addition of casual dining concepts such as Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen or Yard House seem to make the most sense, but Seasons 52 is a possibility too.    

As a company, Darden traces its roots to Georgia and William "Bill" Darden, who opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in Waycross in 1938 at age 19.  He later founded Red Lobster Inns of America and opened the first Red Lobster restaurant in Lakeland, Florida, in 1968.  

In the decades since, the company has grown through both internal development and acquisition to include some of the most well-known and popular casual and fine dining brands around.  

Darden purchased LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille from Atlanta-based Rare Hospitality in 2007. Upscale seafood and steak restaurant Eddie V's (which opened its first Atlanta area location this past October) was acquired in 2011, while beer-centric eatery Yard House was acquired in 2012.  The company sold its barbecue chain Smokey Bones in 2007 and its legacy brand Red Lobster in 2013.  

Over the following decade, the company went on to acquire Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen (2017), Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (2023), and Chuy's (2024).   

Olive Garden and its roughly 900 locations typically accounts for about half of Darden's overall annual sales.  Bahama Breeze, Olive Garden, and Seasons 52 are currently the only brands owned by the company that Darden started itself rather than acquired.  

Darden has over the past three decades or so launched three other brands besides Bahama Breeze, but with limited success; China Coast, an American Chinese restaurant it launched in 1990, Smokey Bones, a barbeque concept, in 1999, and Seasons 52, a healthy-ish American eatery, in 2003.  

China Coast over-expanded and ultimately proved too costly to operate and ceased to exist as of 1995. (P.F. Chang's, which launched in 1993 has gone on to rule the casual Chinese dining business and is today a billion dollar brand.)  Smokey Bones never seemed to live up to Darden's growth projections and was sold by the company to private equity firm Sun Capital Partners in 2007, and was sold again to FAT Brands (which filed chapter 11 bankruptcy last month) in 2023.  

Are you a fan of Bahama Breeze?  Who do you think the Bahama Breeze brand has struggled so much?  What would you like to see open in place of either of the soon to close Bahama Breeze restaurants in metro Atlanta ?

Please share your thoughts below.