Olive Garden to revamp restaurants

Olive Garden plans to renovate as many as 400 of its existing restaurants nationwide by 2013 into its Tuscan farmhouse design, a new model introduced in 2000.

The Italian restaurant chain, owned by Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI), said the revamp of the 400 locations will include updated decor inside its restaurants along with new Tuscan-inspired outside updates such as Cypress trees.

Renovations are scheduled at 30 Texas locations this fiscal year, a spokeswoman said. Remaining restaurant renovations will be determined based on feedback.

See more details on the remodel here.

Olive Garden has six New Mexico locations. The Westside Olive Garden restaurant, which opened in Albuquerque in May 2003, was a Tuscan farmhouse-style design. It is located in the Cottonwood Corners shopping center at Ellison and Coors Bypass NW.

The 8,000-square-foot restaurant features a tile roof, rustic stone walls, trellised patio, stucco exterior walls and an interior with 18-foot vaulted ceilings.

Darden Restaurants — which also owns Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52 and Bahama Breeze — last week reported $151.7 million in profit, or $1.08 per share, for its fiscal third quarter.