Claim:
Darden Restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden, announced the closure of 900 locations in late 2025.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online ifrom October to December 2025 that Darden Restaurants, the owner of Olive Garden, planned to close all of the Italian chain eatery’s 900-plus locations.
Users shared this rumor, or similar rumors about Olive Garden locations closing, on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived).
(Carlos Gil/Facebook)
In short, this rumor was false and stemmed from headline confusion, specifically pertaining to articles announcing Olive Garden would be closed on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.
Snopes contacted Darden Restaurants to ask about the headlines and articles, and the rumor, and will update this story if we receive further information.
How the false rumor snowballed
On Oct. 13, The Sun tabloid published an article with a headline that appeared in Google search results as “Olive Garden sanctions the closure of all 900 locations in …” The full headline read: “Olive Garden sanctions the closure of all 900 locations in two total shutdowns lasting 48 hours.” The story revealed the two “shutdowns” pertained to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Weeks later, on Dec. 3, The Sun published another article with a headline that displayed in Google search results as “Olive Garden bosses sanction total shutdown of all 900 …” The full headline read: “Olive Garden bosses sanction total shutdown of all 900 restaurants for 24 hours – and it’s just weeks away.”
(Google)
Numerous publishers reported similar headlines in articles ultimately revealing Olive Garden would be closed for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. Facebook users questioned the headlines’ wording, discussed the rumor and labeled the articles as “clickbait.”
Olive Garden’s holiday closures
The Olive Garden website explained the chain’s holiday closure policy as a way of allowing “team members to spend time with their family and friends”:
Olive Garden restaurants are closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day to allow our team members to spend time with their family and friends. Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and International holiday hours may vary by location. Depending on the amount of business on the day before these holidays, the restaurants may close early. We leave this decision to the discretion of the management team. Please contact the restaurant directly for the scheduled closing time the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve.
The Cheesecake Factory and other closure rumors
Restaurant and store closure rumors, whether pertaining to temporary or permanent closings, often trend on Google because those businesses can be central to users’ communities.
For example, in October 2020, we reported about “cheesecake factory closing restaurants” displaying at the top of a Google “trending searches” list.
Earlier that day, a blog named Eat This, Not That! published a story with the headline, “Cheesecake Factory Is Closing This Business For Good.” Yahoo hosted a syndicated version of the same article.
(@dmills8/Twitter)
That trending search misled users into wondering whether The Cheesecake Factory planned to completely close “for good.” The body of the article revealed the restaurant group that owned The Cheesecake Factory actually planned to close another owned business named RockSugar Southeast Asian Kitchen.
Regarding trending searches invading the rumor world, Google Trends showed the words “Olive Garden closing” trended to some degree after The Sun published their first story in October.
For further reading, we previously reported about a similar rumor claiming Walmart planned to close all of its stores — also originating as a holiday closure article from The Sun.
