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Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. On August 6, 2014, Red Lobster announced its new headquarters location in CNL Center City Commons in Orlando. On March 6, 2015, Red Lobster officially opened the Restaurant Support Center. The first Red Lobster restaurant was opened on January 18, 1968, in Lakeland, Florida, by entrepreneurs Bill Darden and Charley Woodsby. Originally billed as a “Harbor for Seafood Lovers”, the first restaurant was followed by four others throughout the southeastern United States.
In 1970, General Mills acquired Red Lobster as a five-unit company. With new backing, the chain expanded rapidly in the 1980s. Red Lobster entered Canada in the 1980s, in many cases by buying Ponderosa restaurant locations. On March 29, 1994, Bill Darden died, after an extended illness, at the age of 75. During that time, General Mills decided to release Darden into an independent, publicly traded corporation.