Olive Garden Owner Warns: "Decline In Fine Dining" As Wealthy Americans Trade Do

[Ptarmigan]

Olive Garden Owner Warns: "Decline In Fine Dining" As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/olive-garden-owner-warns-decline-fine-dining-wealthy-americans-trade-down-cheap-booze

Sentiment continues to turn negative for the US consumer as the latest warning sign comes from a multi-brand restaurant operator with more than 1,900 full-service locations nationwide. During a Thursday morning conference call, the management team warned Wall Street analysts about "softness" among wealthier households.

Darden Restaurants CEO Rick Cardenas said, "We are seeing a little softness versus last year with household incomes above $125,000, and that primarily affects our Fine Dining brands, but it does affect all of our brands."

The multi-brand restaurant operator owns Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, and five other brands with more than 1,900 locations nationwide.

Cardenas offered more clues about waning consumer spending habits at restaurant locations:

"Now, this could be because the increase in luxury travel, particularly international travel, which you've heard a lot of people talk about, but as I've said before many times, there is a tension between what people want to pay and what they can afford, and they're going to continue to seek value, not always about low price. They're making tradeoffs, and food away from home is one of the most difficult things they can give up."

People are eating less at fine dining restaurants. This is signs the economy is weakening.

[Eupher]

Olive Garden Owner Warns: "Decline In Fine Dining" As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/olive-garden-owner-warns-decline-fine-dining-wealthy-americans-trade-down-cheap-booze

People are eating less at fine dining restaurants. This is signs the economy is weakening.

Unless I'm traveling and on the road, I just don't eat out anymore. Not since Covid. The service is usually crappy (or non-existent because the restaurant can't get people to work), it's ungodly expensive, and I can generally do a lot better at home.

I can't remember the last time I went into an Olive Garden -- easily 20 years or more.

[DefiantSix]

...I can't remember the last time I went into an Olive Garden -- easily 20 years or more.

My wife and I still go out 1 - 2 times a month. I'm a good enough cook - it's amazing what you can pick up when you tire of bachelor food before you're done being a bachelor - and my wife isn't exactly a slouch in the kitchen.

When we go out it's for one of two reasons: either we're both too tired to cook, or we're looking to try something new. I have this sneaky little trick hard wired into me by now, where I can taste something new once, go home and come pretty close to replicating it in the kitchen.

[Drafe Hoblin]

I cut back on ordering pizza and eating steak. 

And I only eat at 'mom & pop' specialty places, where the old trick of overloading you with french-fries still seems to be in-play.  And now I order a bloody-mary with a meal instead of whatever-else.

That's fine dining in the bidenflation-era.