Darden announced yesterday that they’ve bought Ruth’s Chris Steak House for $715 million. While that might sound like a lot, that’s how much it costs for one steak and a side of asparagus at Ruth’s Chris, so Darden got quite the deal.
I wanted to highlight this purchase here because Darden is a fairly popular gift card brand and we’ve seen an uptick in Ruth’s Chris gift card deals over the past couple of weeks. Perhaps that had something to do with the imminent purchase, but it might also just be because Mother’s Day is coming up and a good way to show love to the person who birthed you is to take them to dinner and pay with two months of your life savings, or seven weeks of your life savings if you managed to pick up some discounted Ruth’s Chris gift cards.
Anyway, in time this will presumably mean that you’ll be able to redeem Darden gift cards at Ruth’s Chris locations. Darden owns a range of restaurant brands, with six of them appearing on Darden gift cards:
- Olive Garden
- LongHorn Steakhouse
- Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen
- Yard House
- Seasons 52
- Bahama Breeze
Ruth’s Chris will be joining Darden’s fine dining portfolio which includes Eddie V’s and The Capital Grille. Although those two brands aren’t displayed on Darden gift cards, you can use them at those two brands which is why I’m assuming that Ruth’s Chris will also become an option once the purchase has gone through and their systems have been updated to allow that.
At the moment we don’t know exactly what’ll happen with Ruth’s Chris gift cards. You’ll still be able to use them at Ruth’s Chris locations no matter what, but I doubt Darden will add the ability for them to be used at other Darden brands.