This Olive Garden Competitor Once Had Over 200 Locations — Now Fewer Than 10 Remain

Some restaurant categories can support plenty of competitors in the same space, but if you're up against Olive Garden in the casual dining Italian sector you better be bringing your A-game. The popular Italian restaurant chain has reigned supreme atop the casual dining sector for years, even as many competitors struggled, adding almost 100 locations in the last decade on top of its already sizable footprint. The second largest sit-down Italian chain, Carrabba's Italian Grill, doesn't even have a quarter as many stores. And Carrabba's is the lucky one, as longtime Olive Garden rival Romano's Macaroni Grill has completely vanished in the last five years, and now has fewer than 10 locations left.

Founded in San Antonio in 1988, Romano's Macaroni Grill was created by restaurateur Phil Romano, who was also the founder of Fuddruckers. He started the Macaroni Grill as an explicit Olive Garden competitor after a jumping ship from his first restaurant during a downturn in sales. The chain was quickly acquired by the owners of Chili's and grew throughout the '90s, peaking at 237 American locations in 2006. Since then it's been a victim of unsteady ownership and bad timing, and an Italian chain restaurant industry that's not friendly to any company that tries to challenge Olive Garden and its breadsticks. Sales were already declining when Chili's owner Brinker International sold it in 2008, but before the deal was even done, the financial crisis and recession hit that year, and Romano's has been shrinking ever since.

Golden Gate Capital ended up buying Romano's Macaroni Grill after the financial collapse, but for a renegotiated price that was 40% lower than planned as the restaurant industry fell apart that year. It lasted only five years with Golden Gate, being sold to Ignite Restaurant Group, the owners of Joe's Crab Shack, in 2013. That went even worse. When Ignite bought Romano's for $55 million in 2015 it still had 210 locations. Only two years later it was down to 164 and sold for a paltry $8 million to another capital group. It was with that ownership that Romano's filed for bankruptcy in 2017, and closed 37 more locations.

However, there was a beat when the Macaroni Grill seemed like it might start growing again, as it was planning on expanding, and even acquired a steakhouse after bankruptcy. Then 2020 hit. More than half the remaining locations closed, leaving Romano's with only around 40. Since then its been seemingly in a death spiral. Despite listing 17 locations on its website, only eight Macaroni Grills are still operating, including two in airports.

But that is life for Italian chain restaurants. Buca di Beppo recently filed for bankruptcy, along with Bertucci's. Over the last decade Carrabba's has held on but also shrank its unit count by around 40 locations. It seems like if you want to sell affordable Italian, you're either Olive Garden or you're not.