This could be bad news for steak lovers on Hilton Head Island

The Outback Steakhouse on Hilton Head Island has served its final Bloomin’ Onion.

The island’s only Outback — located within the Festival Centre at Indigo Park shopping area — closed Thursday, restaurant managing partner A.J. Pierce said Friday.

“The closure is permanent,” he said.

The Hilton Head Island restaurant is no longer included on the Outback website’s list of South Carolina locations and a sign on the front door of the establishment reads, “This location is now closed.”

The two other Beaufort County locations — in Bluffton on Buckwalter Parkway and in Beaufort on Boundary Street — will stay open and “will not be impacted” by the closure, said Elizabeth Watts, media director for Outback’s parent company Bloomin’ Brands, Inc.

Joshua Kight, managing partner at the Bluffton restaurant, said his location has been “much busier” than the island Outback and does “about double the sales.”

Pierce said some employees at the closed island restaurant are transferring to the Bluffton location.

Kight said he has already brought over four servers and two cooks.

“I’m going to absorb as many as I can,” he said. “My door is open to any of those employees.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 3:25 PM with the headline "This could be bad news for steak lovers on Hilton Head Island."