Olive Garden is planning a new restaurant at 575 W. Illinois Ave. in Dallas, adding another location to a state that already has more of the chain than anywhere else in the country. Permitting records tied to the project list October 2027 as the construction completion date, giving Dallas diners a rough sense of when the Tuscan-inspired chain might finally open its doors.
A New Address Joins Texas's Crowded Olive Garden Map
The Dallas project was first reported by What Now Dallas, which cited permitting records showing the October 2027 completion timeline. The outlet noted it reached out to Olive Garden about the opening schedule but did not receive a response before publication, leaving the exact date the restaurant will welcome customers unresolved for now. Texas already has nearly 120 Olive Garden restaurants, more than any other state, according to the same report, underscoring just how deep the chain's roots already run across the Dallas-Fort Worth region and beyond.
The West Illinois Avenue project isn't happening in isolation. What Now Dallas also pointed to a 6,496-square-foot Olive Garden planned for Cedar Hill and a separate 7,828-square-foot restaurant in Midlothian that's expected to open by March 2027, suggesting Olive Garden's parent company is treating North Texas as fertile ground for multiple builds at once.
The Design Behind the Brand's Tuscan Farmhouse Look
Whatever design lands on West Illinois Avenue is likely to draw from Olive Garden's Domani prototype, a template developed with architecture firm ACS. According to ACS, the firm has served as the prototype architect for multiple Darden brands, including Olive Garden, and has spent recent years refining the Domani design into something built for national replication. The firm describes the updated prototype as one that integrates modern materials and contemporary decor while still complementing Olive Garden's long-running Tuscan Farmhouse theme, and says it is currently collaborating with Olive Garden to roll the design out across various locations.
That farmhouse identity isn't new. Olive Garden first unveiled a wave of Tuscan-inspired remodels back in March 2011, when the company announced that more than half of its then-700-plus U.S. restaurants would get an interior or exterior refresh, saying at the time, per a release carried by PR Newswire, that “the Farmhouse design reinforces our vision by creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere.” The redesign made headlines at the time as one of the chain's more ambitious brand overhauls, a moment Eater covered when it noted that over half of Olive Garden's 700 restaurants were getting a makeover “inspired by the timeless warmth of farmhouses in Tuscany, Italy.”
Newer Domani builds elsewhere give a sense of what these restaurants tend to look like inside and out. A Glen Kernan Park project in South Jacksonville, Florida, for instance, was described by the Jacksonville Daily Record as featuring a dedicated to-go area with its own entryway, a dining room layout built for more flexible group seating, and an alfresco space connecting indoor and outdoor dining. The publication also reported that the Domani design incorporates brick interior walls, a white marble bar and countertops, and natural tones of soft greens, caramels, wood and textured stone. Olive Garden's broader building specs elsewhere run 6,261 or 7,477 square feet with interior seating for 193 or 255 people, depending on the site.
A Chain Still Growing, Even as Sales Cool
Olive Garden has grown into a genuine national fixture since opening its first restaurant in Florida in 1982, expanding to more than 900 locations nationwide, and it hasn't slowed its build-out even as its sales growth has softened. Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden's parent company, operated more than 930 Olive Garden locations as of late May, generating $5.2 billion in sales during fiscal 2025, a 2.8% increase from the year before, according to Fox Business. That same reporting indicates Darden expects to open roughly 40 to 45 new Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse locations in the coming year, with Olive Garden itself likely to keep adding about 20 new restaurants annually for the foreseeable future.
The chain's momentum has cooled somewhat more recently. Olive Garden's same-store sales rose just 1.1% in Darden's fiscal first quarter of 2027, and the company is now leaning into weekday lunch occasions and value pricing to drive more traffic, according to CNBC. Even with that slower growth, the outlet notes Olive Garden remains Darden's largest chain by both location count and sales, a reminder that continued expansion into markets like Dallas is happening even as the brand recalibrates how it draws customers in.
For now, the West Illinois Avenue project remains defined mostly by its permitting paperwork: an address, a 2027 completion timeline, and a design pedigree tied to a prototype the company has spent years refining nationwide. Just how many seats, parking spots or acres the finished Dallas restaurant will include hasn't been detailed in the available records.
