The ratings on Darden Restaurants Inc. reflect the company's relatively good position in the casual dining industry, financial conservatism demonstrated by its solid cash flow protection measures, and a strong balance sheet. Darden is the largest full-service casual dining restaurant company in the U.S., operating 679 Red Lobster, 556 Olive Garden, 32 Bahama Breeze, and 98 Smokey Bones BBQ restaurants, along with three Seasons 52 restaurant. Darden has generated consistently good operating results since 1998 due to successful reinvestment in its core businesses. The company has improved the food, service, and atmosphere at its units. As a result, Olive Garden had recorded 42 consecutive quarters of same-store sales gains as of Feb. 27, 2005, and Red Lobster's comparable-store sales were
