Marilyn Haggerty's amazing Olive Garden review and the subsequent viral shitstorm

https://i.imgur.com/E8GvZj0.jpg

I mean, yeah, that's from 2008 when Haggerty first visited Eagles Crest Grill, but also, it's the most recent screenshot available from Google Street View.

A challenger approaches.

save local news pic.twitter.com/ApxFCg7NDR

— Hayes Davenport (@hayesdavenport) May 30, 2018

does Thomas Sowell follow him?

He's a more persuasive writer than Sowell so perhaps the dude can learn from him.

If we start a thread about "hamburgers: w/cheese?" do you think we can get Phil to start posting here?

I would like one chicken burg, hold cheese

Man, that guy's the anti-Haggerty.

Totally missed that Ecco published a book of her reviews under Bourdain's imprint and that he wrote the forward.

https://www.eater.com/2013/8/19/6385655/heres-anthony-bourdains-foreword-to-marilyn-hagertys-book-grand-forks

Reading these reviews, we can see, we can watch over the course of time, who makes it and who doesn't. Which bold, undercapitalized pioneers survived—and who, no matter how ahead of their time, just couldn't hang on until the neighborhood caught up. You will get to know the names of owners and chefs like Warren LeClerc, whose homey lunch restaurant, The Pantry, turned down the lights to become the sophisticated French restaurant Le Pantre by night. And Chef Nardane of Touch of Magic Ballroom who, in his 6,200-square foot ballroom, served cheesecakes inspired by Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, and envisioned an exclusive private membership club with frequent celebrity entertainment. And Steve Novak of Beaver's Family Restaurant, who when Marilyn visited his establishment, spoke of reviving his beaver act, complete with costume, for birthday parties.

And you will understand why the opening of an Olive Garden might be earnestly anticipated as an exciting and much welcome event.

Ms. Hagerty is not naïve about her work, her newfound fame, or the world. She has travelled widely in her life.

In person, she has a flinty, dry, very sharp sense of humor. She misses nothing. I would not want to play poker with her for money.

This is a straightforward account of what people have been eating—still ARE eating—in much of America. As related by a kind, good-hearted reporter looking to pass along as much useful information as she can—while hurting no one.

Anyone who comes away from this work anything less than charmed by Ms. Hagerty—and the places and characters she describes—has a heart of stone.

This book kills snark dead.

Bourdain, recall, flew her to NYC.

xpost (Also missed 1,500 messages here and now see that Alfred posted it a few years back.)

ha -- I forgot I did.

Shit, I didn't realize the Hagerty thing was so long ago.

http://www.capitalgazette.com/entertainment/ac-en-dining-out-ginza-sushi-20180608-story.html

Lacks her panache.

Dorothy Moreland, our server, helps with the cooking and makes much of the Mexican food. She's a whiz. She helps out as a bartender.

When cold winds swirl snow into drifts and streets are clogged, there is time at home. Time to rummage around for precious old recipes. And in the files of the Eatbeat there are a few with strictly Grand Forks flavor.

One is for Mayor Mike Brown's chili. The other is for the late Mrs. Vilandre's meatloaf.

I must say, I've been skeptical of some of the defenses of her prose, but that first sentence has a weird rhythm and unexpected twist.

oh she's got it

Wish you would come back to Grand Forks!!!! We could name a windchill after you and warm you up at the Toasted Frog!

— Marilyn Hagerty (@MarilynHagerty) January 21, 2019

On two recent visits, I found the service quick and hostesses in the seating area friendly and helpful. When I went there with Donna Rio, we found it a pleasant place for visiting.

There is a choice of seating on two levels. There are high tables and tables for two. Booths for more. Flowers on the tables add to the welcome, although the flower on my table was past its prime on another recent visit to Chick-fil-A.

I enjoy the Chick-fil-A sandwich. It’s breast of chicken served on a toasted, buttered bun with dill pickle chips. And for me, it’s a tasty switch from the everlasting hamburger routine. Other choices at Chick-fil-A include macaroni and cheese, grilled chicken and cob salad.

Kenneth Mabry, a regular customer and retired from the Air Force, says he stops regularly at Chick-fil-A. Originally from Kentucky, he says he likes living in Grand Forks. Among his choices are the Chick-fil-A Nuggets that are served with dipping sauces.

He feels at home at Chick-fil-A because the staff is friendly. He said, “They seem genuine,”

On recent visits, I have noticed a steady flow of customers ordering from the drive through.

Inside Chick-fil-A there is a playground for little children.

not her finest work

That last sentence though

not her finest work

when you give an artist bad and skimpy materials, you get substandard work

those last two sentences have an eerie cadence to them

At that moment an almost endless line of traffic streamed over the bridge.

there are things i just don't understand and the fascination with marilyn hagerty's writing is way at the top of the list

Inside Chik-fil-A there is a playground for little children.

A child comes from the country, begging admittance to the playground, but Chik-fil-A will not admit him.

Can he hope to enter at a later time? That is possible, says Chik-fil-A.

breast of chicken

xp lolllllll

amazing

wait j.d. i didn't even clock yours. we must be on to something.

Wish you would come back to Grand Forks!!!! We could name a windchill after you and warm you up at the Toasted Frog!

— Marilyn Hagerty (@MarilynHagerty) January 21, 2019

worth reposting

In the large, well-equipped kitchen Norene Kennedy leads the way also in turning out Sunday breakfast buffets available between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. And there is a burger menu. On Mondays, there’s a spaghetti choice that runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Or, as she says, “until it’s gone.”

Tuesdays bring Swiss steaks to the forefront. On Thursday, it’s taco salad.

The dining room is located beyond the lounge in the American Legion Club rooms. The pleasant large room has a variety of tables and windows along the south side. There is a window to the kitchen where patrons can pick up dinners when there are no servers on duty.

There is seating for diners at 17 tables in the large dining room along with space in the lounge area.

Patronage seems to stay steady during the winter, according to manager Rick Bartlette. He says those who go to lakes in summer seem to make up in winter for those who go south.

When she goes out, Chef Norene Kennedy says she looks for pasta. She likes to eat at Ruby Tuesday and the Olive Garden. She looks for steak at Texas Roadhouse.

In the back of her mind, she always is critiquing, studying.

The dining room is located beyond the lounge in the American Legion Club rooms.

just reading this sentence fills me with a mix of dread and ennui.

The pleasant large room has a variety of tables and windows along the south side.

there are exits to the west and north. a closed trapdoor leads down.

_

This might have been a beautiful Friday in April. Among other things, students at Central High School had their senior prom scheduled at the Alerus Center. And along with so many other events, it is postponed.

On the bright side, there was a new moon Thursday.

But now, most everything is on hold because of the catastrophe called coronavirus. Nobody even knew what coronavirus was when plans were made for this last weekend in April.

Maybe the birds knew. After all, the North Dakota Century Code says April 26 is designated as Bird Day in North Dakota. This year, that’s Sunday. It was so named to promote and encourage the conservation and enjoyment of one of nature’s most attractive features. And it was named to honor the birth and work of naturalist John James Audubon. The code says he made America’s birds known to the world through his drawings and vivid prose.

maybe the fucking birds knew

goddamn it marilyn you done it again

glad to find out the origin of the word "Sunday"

That single-sentence second graf.

Now I'm imagining her continuing said graf with "and a fire dance through the night"

Never before heard a new moon being called "the bright side."

Guess when you think about it, it's bright on the other side.

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON DID THE PAINTING OF THE OTTER IN A TRAP

Marilyn Hagerty, of the viral Olive Garden review, talked to me about covering the restaurant beat while Covid is raging through N. Dakota, where she lives https://t.co/k8qczfYLLI

— Pete Wells (@pete_wells) December 10, 2020

omigod

Ms. Hagerty’s two other weekly columns are not about food. She writes one in the form of a letter bringing some out-of-town friend up to speed on the latest goings-on in Grand Forks. The other she fills with odds and ends that happen to catch her eye.

“I just write about sort of half-crazy things,” she said. “Kind of like what you’d tell your friends but you wouldn’t put in the paper, but I do put it in the paper.”

For these pieces, the Herald pays her a freelance rate. Ms. Hagerty said jokingly that the paper probably doesn’t have the heart to fire her. Anyone in journalism, though, will suspect that her editors know the value of a reporter who files three times a week and never runs out of ideas.

“She’s not doing it for the money,” Mr. Hagerty, who writes obituaries for The Wall Street Journal, said of his mother. “She’s doing it to stay sane. She refuses to be an old person.”

Even in her self-imposed house arrest, Ms. Hagerty has not been at a loss for subjects. She has reported on the search for smaller Thanksgiving turkeys, the adaptations for pandemic safety made by the dining hall at the University of North Dakota, and the holiday rush at a 71-year-old candy shop whose chippers, chocolate-covered potato chips, may be Grand Forks’s second-greatest claim to gastronomic fame.