22 Things to Know Before Dining at the Yard House Restaurant

Table of Contents

1. It was founded in 1966

Yard House Restaurant was founded in 1966 by Steele Platt, Tom Yelenick, William Wollrab, and Steve Reynolds. The very first location of the Yard House Restaurant resided in Long Beach, California. But the restaurant now operates out of Irvine, California.

2. Yard House currently operates under Darden Restaurants

In 2012, a corporation known as Darden Restaurants purchased Yard House for $585 million. In addition to this, Darden Restaurants also features eight other popular fine-dining restaurants, including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, and Eddie V’s. Darden Restaurants employs over 175,000 team members nationwide and has 1,700 restaurants nationwide.

3. They don’t offer catering

Yard House does not provide catering services to customers, but they do offer a Party Platter Menu. Customers have the option of either ordering from the Party Platter Menu as a dine-in order or as a to-go order.

4. Yard House offers vegetarian and vegan food upon request

Yard House offers a vegetarian and vegan menu. Its vegetarian protein is made from several organic ingredients, including soy, wheat, pea proteins, vegetables, and other grains. Yard House claims that this vegetarian protein can be substituted for items that contain chicken or beef on their main menu.

5. They offer a gluten-free menu

Yard House also offers a gluten-free menu. You can check it out on the company’s website.

6. They offer a rewards program

Yard House Restaurant has a rewards program where you can earn and redeem points. You can earn an instant $5 bonus when you sign up, in addition to receiving a free dessert on your birthday. The rewards program is free to join, and you can sign up either at a participating restaurant or online on Yard House’s website.

Overall, with the Yard House rewards program, you have the ability to earn 1 point for every $1 that you spend on eligible items. You can also earn points for service while dining in, through delivery, and through to-go orders.

7. Yard House supports charities

Yard House Restaurant supports Round It Up America, Darden Harvest, and the Darden Foundation. Round It Up America is responsible for giving Americans the opportunity to donate their pocket change by rounding up their purchase at the restaurant to the nearest whole dollar.

Darden Harvest is responsible for coordinating food donations to food banks by collecting their surplus food. The Darden Foundation is responsible for awarding more than $82 million in grants to multiple different organizations, such as American Red Cross, Feeding America, and the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.

8. They have the world’s largest selection of draft beer

Yard House Restaurant provides its customers with a center island bar that’s located in each one of its restaurant locations. At each of these center island bars, there are endless tap handles that range from classic lagers to ales. Yard House also provides its customers with a keg room at each location that is responsible for storing strictly alcohol. Yard House Restaurant features over 125 craft ales and lagers that they offer their customers.

9. Yard House received its name from a tall British glass

Yard House is named after a tall glass container that measured 3 feet tall and was called a “yard.” It was founded in the 17th century in England.

10. Each location has a glass-enclosed keg room

Since beer is at the heart of the operation, each Yard House Restaurant location contains a glass-enclosed room that’s specifically for beer kegs. Each keg room contains 5,000 gallons of beer in beer kegs at a time. The keg room is always kept at a temperature that remains between 34 and 36 degrees, which is to keep all of the beer in the kegs fresh and at a chilled temperature.

11. The Cincinnati Yard House location hosted Keg Day

The Yard House Restaurant in Cincinnati hosted a Keg Day where they installed over 250 beer kegs which contained anywhere from tap kegs, imported kegs, and specialty beer kegs. In addition to all of this, Yard House also brought over 700 spirit bottles as well as 56 cases of wine to the event.

12. The restaurant offers a fusion menu

Yard House Restaurant provides customers with a fusion menu that contains over 100 items, which includes salads, soups, sandwiches, street tacos, fresh seafood, pasta, rice dishes, steak, poultry, and fresh fish. Yard House also offers its customers small shareable plates from a snacks menu in addition to happy hour appetizers at half price.

13. Enjoy fresh food every day

Yard House has over 100 items that are made fresh each day and do not use pre-prepared ingredients.

14. It’s operated by a domestic restaurant group

Yard House Restaurant is controlled and operated by a domestic group in China. In addition to this, the location of the domestic group is also surrounded by other popular international brands, such as Starbucks, Patagonia, Subway, and New York Times.

15. It represents a rock club atmosphere

Yard House Restaurant resembles a rock club. There are foreground AV systems and classic rock playlists that play at each restaurant for the customers to enjoy.

16. Each location contains an outdoor patio

Each Yard House has outdoor patios where you can dine if you like.

17. Yard House donates to the community

Team members package excess food for shelters, food banks, and other charitable organizations.

18. Their menu includes exclusive beers

The Honey Beer is a light blonde ale made with real honey. The Pilsner is a Belgian beer that presents a floral aroma. The White Ale has floral and spices. The India Pale Ale has a hop aroma, and the Belgian Golden has fruit notes and a rich taste. The Belgian Amber Tripel is a beer that blends sweet malts with 3 other hops.

19. They’re always hiring

Because Yard House Restaurant is always opening new locations, it is constantly hiring. These jobs range from management positions, supervisor positions, and chef positions to team member positions. In addition to this, Yard House also claims that they offer competitive wages.

20. Their chefs use multiple cultural foods and techniques

Yard House chefs create new tastes in their dishes that are based upon innovations as well as different cultural regions. For instance, the chefs recently used the zatar spice that is native to the Middle East. They use the knowledge and techniques that they acquired from their travels for inspiration, and they are even inspired by knowledge from an entire region’s influence on food.

21. They open new locations frequently

Since it’s a fairly new restaurant, Yard House is constantly opening new locations in order to spread its business.

22. They offer to-go ordering

Yard House Restaurant offers a to-go service with reserved parking spaces.