ORLANDO, Fla., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Darden Restaurants, Inc. will be presenting at the Banc of America Securities Consumer Conference to be held in New York on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 4:20 pm Eastern Daylight Time. An audio webcast of the presentation will be available over the Internet at http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/BAS/consumer-2002/id16310137.cfm . The archived webcast will also be available on the home page of the company's website (www.darden.com) through Friday, April 26, 2002.

As the largest casual dining restaurant company in the world, Darden Restaurants, Inc., owns and operates over 1,100 Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Bar restaurants with annual sales of $4.02 billion. Darden is headquartered in Orlando, FL.