Last Thursday, Darden Restaurants Inc (NYSE: DRI) issued weaker than expected fiscal first quarter earnings as fine dining restaurants and Olive Garden struggled with lower sales. Fiscal first quarter highlights show summer sales fell short of expectations. For the quarter ended on August 25th, Darden reported revenue grew 1% YoY to $2.76 billion, coming short of LSEG’s consensus estimate of $2.8 billion, but same store sales declined 1.1%. Like its restaurant peers, Darden’s traffic struggled during summer, presumably due to increased travel. Moreover, Olive Garden reported that same-store sa…