Joe Lee, a co-founder of Red Lobster and the first CEO of its former parent company, Darden Restaurants, has died.
He was 85 and died from health complications, according to a report in the Orlando Business Journal.
Lee was a beloved and influential industry leader whose fingerprints are all over casual dining.
Born in 1940, Lee grew up in rural Georgia and later served in the Air Force. He worked in restaurants to pay his college tuition and in 1967 was hired as the manager of a new place in Lakeland, Florida, called Red Lobster. He hit it off with founder Bill Darden and became part of the concept’s ownership group.
Lee’s career really took off two years later, when cereal giant General Mills acquired the seafood restaurant. In 1972, Lee was named the chain’s president and CEO. He continued to climb the ranks at General Mills, serving as head of its restaurant division throughout the 1980s. He oversaw the rapid growth and transformation of Red Lobster and its newly created sister concept, Olive Garden, which together helped define the casual-dining segment as we know it today. In 1992, Lee was promoted to CFO of General Mills.
[Listen to a profile of Joe Lee on the Restaurant Rewind podcast.]
When General Mills decided to spin off its restaurants in 1995, Lee was tapped as CEO of the new company. At his suggestion, it was named Darden Restaurants after his Red Lobster co-founder, who had died a year earlier.
Lee led Darden until 2004, and under his guidance, it became one of the largest and most well-respected companies in the restaurant industry. Today, Orlando-based Darden has more than 2,100 restaurants across 10 full-service brands, including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen.
Lee was known for a close attention to detail and a reliance on data at a time when gut feeling drove most decision-making. When scouting new concepts for General Mills, he would carry a pocket thermometer to test the temperature of the food, according to a 1982 profile in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.
Lee also served as president of the National Restaurant Association, and in 1998, received a Gold Plate Award from the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association—the industry’s highest honor.
He was also involved with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, for which he and Darden helped raise more than $5 million over the years. The group’s Eatonville, Florida, location is named after Lee.
His impact on the restaurant business ran deep, and the news of his death led to an outpouring of remembrances Monday. In a LinkedIn post, Kim Lopdrup, the former Red Lobster CEO and Darden executive, called Lee a “giant.”
“He did more than anyone to make Red Lobster and Darden Restaurants successful,” Lopdrup wrote. “He is still loved and revered by long-term employees at both companies.”
Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said the company was saddened by Lee’s passing.
“Not only was Joe a terrific restaurant operator who helped create the casual dining segment, he was a kind-hearted gentleman and a tremendous businessman and leader,” he said in a statement to Restaurant Business. “As the first CEO of Darden, Joe’s legacy of treating all his guests and team members equally is the hallmark of Darden’s success today. On behalf of our 200,000 team members, we offer our most sincere thoughts and prayers to his wife, Dale, and all of Joe’s family and friends.”
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