THE EATBEAT: Long-awaited Olive Garden receives warm welcome
March 6, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Grand Forks Herald
All in all, Eatbeat columnist Marilyn Hagerty writes, the new Olive Garden “is the largest and most beautiful restaurant now operating in Grand Forks. It attracts visitors from out of town as well as people who live here.” Continue Reading
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Sandy, negative slug.
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Hey Marilyn—I just wanted to let you know that a lot of us who are reading this, we live in big cities now but we came from small cities, and we read your article and it made us happy. Not because we’re feeling superior and laughing at small towns and chain restaurants, but because man, I really miss things like going to the brand new Olive Garden with my grandparents. They’ve been gone a while now, and I’ve been gone a while from the Midwestern suburbs, and sometimes, well, you just wish things were a little more like the soup, salad, and breadsticks.
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I’m with you, mj. I once lived in a town that thought the opening of its first McDonald’s was the second coming, so I can appreciate the reviewer’s roots. Good for her that she wrote the review. Good for Grand Forks that it finally has its very own Olive Garden. Maybe some people will be encouraged to compete with it and even serve better food than it does. With all the cynicism in America today, it’s refreshing to think that something like the opening of an Olive Garden gets people’s knees up.
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It’s nice to know things are still well in North Dakota. I suspect that Grand Forks is a very sane place.
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Again another reminder of why the Forum stopped the comments.
Sandy is pathetic in her comments. Hope the Forum stops these comments, including mine, and require people if they want to comment write a letter to the editor for publication.
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There’s nothing wrong with a little desention here….People enjoy these boards because they don’t want to make a huge point on every issue and enjoy having debates with others. To me this is one of the most enjoyable parts about the Herald on line….Otherwise I’d probably just check it in the morning for news and forget about it….With these I check whenever I stop someplace where I can get a WIFI connection. For someone like me who is on the road so much this is sort of like sitting in a coffee shop discussing issues….I’m guessing it’s that way for a lot of locals…..The more people come back the more advertizing they run across, and isn’t that what the on line version needs?
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I love the comment section and applaud the Herald website for keeping it up! Every major website has them and the Forum just got their feelings hurt once and bowed out- sad, really.
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I agree Jack…it’s just a light hearted conversation. On the Herald’s site several people get along very well. If you want see discourse check out the Duluth News Tribune….they are nasty to each other.
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A very well written review. I have never had a bad experience at Olive Garden. Whether or not their food or decor is “authentic” they have good food and service, as do Red Lobster and Longhorn Steakhouse. Those internet trolls who have said unkind things about her review need to do some soul searching and think about what compels them to constantly post nasty things about people they do not know.
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This article reminds me very much of my late Grandmother, Myrtle Fehrenbacher. She spent her life as a self-taught journalist for the newspaper in a small town called Buhl, Idaho.
Not only does it make me remember her journalistic lifestyle, but it reminds me of how content she was with the little luxuries that we seem to take for granted in life. Many people have mocked this review because it is about Olive Garden – a restaurant that most of us need no introduction to. I, for one, truly appreciated it for its provision of important facts about the restaurant and the pleasant narrative that ran through it.
Perhaps this review should open our eyes to more than just our taste in food. Maybe we should look around us and enjoy the things that we so often ignore – late lunches, raspberry lemonades, warm breadsticks and a comely collection of permanent flowers.
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I like the beers at Olive Gargen. They are very good, especially as you drink more of them.
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Seriously can we delete this article so quits showing up in the most read sections at random times
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LOL…it’s unbelievable…
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None…it’s back just like a bad viral infection.
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Really, is this necessary. Yawn.
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