Darden Restaurants Provides Updated Media & Communications Contacts

October 12, 2005

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct 12, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Darden Restaurants, Inc., the world's largest casual dining restaurant company and owner of Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, Smokey Bones Barbeque & Grill and Seasons 52 restaurants, today announced new media contacts for Darden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones.

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    Below are the media contacts for Darden and each of its brands:

     Red Lobster
     Wendy Spirduso, 407-245-6546, cell 407-701-3215, wspirduso@redlobster.com
     Denise Wilson, 407-245-6547, cell 407-701-3230, dwilson@redlobster.com

     Olive Garden
     Steve Coe, 407-245-4923, cell 407-492-6798, scoe@olivegarden.com
     Mara Frazier, 407-245-5161, cell 407-256-7316, mfrazier@olivegarden.com

     Bahama Breeze
     Mike Bernstein, 407-245-5270, cell 407-353-4242, mbernstein@darden.com

     Smokey Bones
     Joe Chabus, 407-245-4563, cell 407-491-3206, jchabus@smokeybones.com

     Seasons 52
     Deborah Robison, 407-245-6396, cell 407-256-6436, drobison@seasons52.com

     Darden Restaurants
     Nathan DeVault, 407-245-4951, cell 407-341-1726,
     nathandevault@costadevault.com

Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: DRI), headquartered in Orlando, Fla., owns and operates nearly 1,400 restaurants and leads the casual dining restaurant industry in sales and market share. The company employs 150,000 people, records annual sales of $5.3 billion and serves 300 million meals annually.

SOURCE Darden Restaurants, Inc.

Nathan DeVault, Darden Restaurants, +1-407-245-4951, or cellular, +1-407-341-1726, or
nathandevault@costadevault.com
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