Darden Restaurants, Inc. (Darden) is the largest publicly held Casual Dining restaurant company in the United States. The Company operates 1,131 restaurants in 49 states (the exception being Alaska), including 629 Red Lobster, 472 Olive Garden, 21 Bahama Breeze, and nine Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Bar restaurants. In addition, the Company operates 37 restaurants in Canada, including 32 Red Lobster and five Olive Garden restaurants. The Company also operates one Olive Garden Cafe in the United States. The Company operates all of its North American restaurants. In Japan, Red Lobster Japan Partners, a Japanese retailer unaffiliated with Darden, operates 34 Red Lobster restaurants pursuant to an Area Development and Franchise Agreement. The Company is the parent company of GMRI Inc. GMRI and other Darden subsidiaries own the operating assets of the restaurants.