Every Darden Segment Grew. Its Three Biggest Texas Brands Poured Less.

What Darden reported

Darden's fiscal first quarter ran June 1 through August 30. On September 24 the company reported $3.2B in sales, up 5.1%, and same-restaurant sales up 3.2% on a comparable-calendar basis. Every segment was positive: Olive Garden rose 1.0%, LongHorn 6.8%, Fine Dining 1.0% and Other Business 4.5%, where Yard House ran about 10%. Pricing was 3.7%, against 3.5% commodity inflation. Full-year EPS guidance of $11.10 to $11.35 held.

Darden's explanations for the quarter came from outside its restaurants. CFO Raj Vennam said the World Cup lifted Yard House by about 180 basis points, but "the tournament negatively impacted the rest of our brands," for a net drag of roughly 80 basis points. During the quarter, Olive Garden pulled planned soup, salad and breadsticks marketing after consumer concern about lettuce. CEO Rick Cardenas said the guest hasn't gone soft: "If the consumer is wavering, we're not seeing it."

Those comps measure total sales. Audited Texas beverage receipts measure one line inside them, the bar, and that line's weight varies widely: alcohol is 4.1% of Olive Garden's sales and 28.9% of Yard House's, according to Darden's fiscal 2026 10-K. The share fell again at all nine brands; Olive Garden's went from 4.7% to 4.1%. That arithmetic is how comps and the bar can move apart. At Olive Garden's 4.1%, a 7.2% bar decline is worth about three-tenths of a point of sales. At Chuy's 11.4%, a 10.1% decline is worth about 1.2 points.

Texas also matters more to some brands than others. Texas locations reporting beverage receipts equal roughly 46% of Chuy's restaurants at quarter end, 32% of Cheddar's, 13% of Olive Garden's and 8% of LongHorn's.

The bar, brand by brand

Same-location audited Texas beverage revenue, June–August 2026 vs. June–August 2025. Locations with receipts in all six months; airport concessions excluded.

| Brand | Locations | 2025 | 2026 | Change | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Olive Garden | 116 | $5.91M | $5.48M | -7.2% | | Chuy's | 47 | $8.51M | $7.65M | -10.1% | | Cheddar's | 54 | $4.36M | $3.77M | -13.5% | | LongHorn | 46 | $4.74M | $4.60M | -3.0% | | Yard House | 10 | $6.11M | $6.62M | +8.4% | | Capital Grille* | 8 | $2.84M | $2.77M | -2.5% | | Ruth's Chris | 8 | $1.42M | $1.30M | -8.8% | | Eddie V's | 6 | $2.53M | $2.42M | -4.2% | | Seasons 52 | 3 | $0.87M | $0.86M | -1.8% | | Chili's | 195 | $21.46M | $20.91M | -2.6% | | Texas Roadhouse | 77 | $17.27M | $16.73M | -3.1% | | Applebee's | 73 | $6.61M | $6.52M | -1.4% | | Saltgrass | 65 | $9.58M | $9.46M | -1.2% |

*Excludes the San Antonio location, which began filing in August 2025.

The declines were broad. Of the locations in the comparison, 43 of 47 Chuy's were down, along with 51 of 54 Cheddar's and 99 of 116 Olive Gardens. At Chili's, 123 of 195 were down.

Summer steepened a trend that was already running. Through the first eight months of 2026, same-location beverage revenue was down 5.5% at Olive Garden (113 locations), 7.6% at Cheddar's (54) and 5.8% at Chuy's (45). Over the same months it was down 2.4% at Chili's (192), 3.4% at Texas Roadhouse (75) and 3.1% at Applebee's (72). LongHorn was up 3.3% (44) and Yard House 8.6% (9).

Chuy's, two years in

Darden closed its $605M Chuy's deal in October 2024. Texas is the chain's home, with roughly half its restaurants. On the call, Cardenas called Chuy's "the only brand in its first full fiscal year for Darden that had a positive same-restaurant sales."

The Texas bar is weaker. Across 47 locations that reported every month, Chuy's took in $8.51M in beverage revenue last summer and $7.65M this summer, and 43 of those locations were down. All 13 in the Austin area fell, 11.0% combined, and so did all 12 in Dallas–Fort Worth. The chain was down 9.1% from January through April as well.

The margarita isn't expensive. Chuy's house margarita lists at $7.99 on Texas menus captured this year, and its median across all styles is $8.49 (29 locations). The two largest full-service Tex-Mex rivals held close to flat at the bar: Mi Cocina's 23 Texas locations slipped 1.7%, and Pappasito's 19 rose 2.5%.

In September we reported that Chuy's Texas bar was down 35% from 2019 across 36 continuous sites. Manor, one of the four builds we flagged in April, filed its first return in August.

Cheddar's, in its home state

Cheddar's opened its first restaurant in Texas in 1979, and Darden says it's concentrating growth where the brand already does well. Its 54 same Texas locations posted the steepest decline in the portfolio: 13.5%, with 51 locations down and spirits off 15.2%. It was down 7.9% from January through April. Cheddar's still pours a $6.99 Texas Margarita, the median price across 27 Texas locations this year. Alcohol is 6.4% of Cheddar's sales, so the bar barely moves its comps. A 13.5% slide next to Chili's 2.6% is still a gap.

Olive Garden: the wine kept going

Olive Garden's 116 same Texas locations took in 7.2% less beverage revenue this summer, 99 of them down, and wine accounts for all of it. Wine revenue fell from $2.42M to $1.99M, down 17.7%, while liquor rose 3.5% and beer fell 8.2%. Wine's share of the brand's Texas bar dropped from 41.0% to 36.3%. The wine list held its price: the median bottle on Texas Olive Garden menus was $24.75 in both April and May captures. Darden tied first-quarter traffic softness to the World Cup and lettuce, but the Texas bar was already off 9.6% from January through April. In April we reported that wine revenue per Texas location had halved since 2011. It kept falling.

LongHorn runs with the steakhouse pack

LongHorn's 6.8% comp was the best among Darden's large brands, and its Texas bar didn't lead it. Beverage revenue at 46 same locations slipped 3.0% for the quarter, with 28 of them down. That's in line with Texas Roadhouse (-3.1%) and Saltgrass (-1.2%). Year to date, LongHorn's Texas bar is up 3.3%, which fits a brand whose momentum Darden credits to food and traffic.

The bar-forward brands

Yard House lines up with Darden's World Cup comment. Its 10 Texas locations grew beverage revenue 8.4%, from $6.11M to $6.62M, with eight of the 10 up. It's up 8.6% for the year.

Capital Grille's Texas total rose this summer, but one room produced all of the gain. The San Antonio location, which didn't begin filing until August 2025, accounts for it. The other eight fell 2.5%, from $2.84M to $2.77M, and six of them were down. That's the pattern we reported in April, when Capital Grille's Texas growth also came from new units. Vennam said Generous Pour "helped quite a bit." The promotion's price dropped to $38 from $45, and wine at those eight rooms still slipped 4.9%.

The smaller fine-dining brands slipped too. Ruth's Chris fell 8.8% across eight locations, about half of them franchised. Eddie V's fell 4.2% across six, and Seasons 52 dipped 1.8% across three.

The cost side

Darden held its beef outlook at low single-digit inflation. Vennam said the company is "trending pretty much in line with our initial estimate." Public wholesale prices show where the pressure sits. On September 1, USDA boxed-beef data had boneless strip loin up 8.7% from a year earlier and heavy boneless ribeye up 8.2%, while trimmed tenderloin was down 10.0% and boneless top sirloin butt up 1.4%. On September 22, iceberg lettuce at the Los Angeles terminal market cost 12.6% less than a year earlier and romaine 58.1% less, so the lettuce scare hit demand, not cost. Roma tomatoes, a Tex-Mex staple, were up 43.2%. Diesel topped $6 a gallon nationally for the first time on September 11, according to AAA, up from about $3.70 a year earlier. That's the "$6-plus" case Vennam sized at 10 to 15 basis points of sales over a full year.

What to watch

The Never-Ending Pasta Bowl runs at $14.99 through November 22, and Olive Garden's lunch relaunch lands this quarter. Darden reports its second quarter on December 18. September and October receipts will show whether Texas guests who come back for pasta also come back to the bar.