The sun is officially setting on Bahama Breeze. After a 30-year run of serving up tropical cocktails and island-inspired dishes, parent company Darden Restaurants is eliminating the brand, signaling the end for a chain that first brought Caribbean casual dining to Orlando in 1996.
In February 2026, Darden announced that the 28 remaining Bahama Breeze locations would either permanently close or be converted into other concepts within its extensive portfolio. The chain, which peaked at 43 nationwide locations in 2014, had struggled for years before Darden's leadership declared it no longer a strategic priority in June 2025.
The Rollout of Closures and Conversions
The brand's dissolution is occurring in two distinct phases, following the abrupt closure of 15 locations during the summer of 2025.
The first 14 of the final 28 locations were shuttered permanently on April 5, 2026. These initial closures effectively erased Bahama Breeze from Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington state.
The remaining 14 locations are scheduled to undergo conversions into other Darden brands over a 12- to 18-month window stretching into 2027. Rather than permanently closing immediately, several of these locations are temporarily closing for renovations or continuing to operate as Bahama Breeze until their transition dates.
Florida Hit Hardest by the Transition
Florida, the state where the brand was born, is the epicenter of this final wave of conversions. Ten of the 14 transitioning locations are situated in the Sunshine State.
While Darden has kept the majority of the replacement brands under wraps, early conversion plans are starting to materialize:
- Orlando, Florida: An Orlando location is set to become a Chuy's, a Tex-Mex brand under the Darden umbrella.
- Lutz, Florida: The Bahama Breeze near Wesley Chapel is reportedly transforming into a Yard House.
- Kennesaw, Georgia: Outside of Florida, the final Georgia location recently exhausted its food inventory due to high customer demand and closed to make way for a Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, slated to open in late September 2026.
An Industry in Shift
The demise of Bahama Breeze represents a broader contraction in the casual dining sector. Other casual dining staples like Red Lobster and Red Robin have similarly trimmed their nationwide footprints amid a challenging economic environment for full-service restaurants.
For most of the country, Bahama Breeze signatures like frozen Bahamaritas, coconut shrimp, and jerk chicken pasta are now firmly in the past. While a handful of temporary holdouts remain operating in Florida as they await their renovations, the ultimate conversion of these last locations will close the final chapter on this slice of 90s casual dining history.
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