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

My cousin waited tables at an Olive Garden when he was in college. There were some regulars who would order water and breadsticks--"And keep the breadsticks coming."

i always wondered if the staff kept track of what the record was for the breadsticks

Silently hoping for someone to explode

oh man, you do not want to clean up a breadstick world record attempt failure

You break the record, you get to ring the bell

Customers appear to feel at home in this restaurant. The décor is pleasant and home-like. There is space to move around and visit with friends. The restaurant has been around Grafton for 38 years and has been its present location 13 years.

The menu lists six salad choices. And there are 20 choices of pizza. Pork chops are among six offerings of poultry and pork. There are eight choices of seafood. Steaks are listed. And liver and onions — rarely found available — is served with choices of potato and coleslaw.

There are 10 choices of burritos with tostados and enchiladas available.

This large facility seems to have something for everyone. The largest level is a step up. Some prefer the street level which also is large and comfortable. Service was especially friendly in the quiet of an early afternoon visit to the restaurant. A trip around the building leads to a community room and a pleasant restroom area.

Desserts are plentiful on the Shananigan menu. There’s cheesecake, Mexican fried ice cream, fudge brownie sundaes. Also lava cake, turtle cheesecake along with sundaes.

“rarely found available” an unusual clanger there from marilyn. not one of her best i’m afraid

This small review seems to have something for everyone.

what is a "pleasant restroom area"? Do they serve blueberry muffins in there

you’ll have to take trip around the building to find out. i wonder if Marilyn always takes a trip around the building, in search of community rooms or other hidden accommodations, or just when she needs to utilise restroom areas.

xpost Depends on how you ask.

you’ll have to take trip around the building to find out. i wonder if Marilyn always takes a trip around the building, in search of community rooms or other hidden accommodations, or just when she needs to utilise restroom areas.

― Tracer Hand

There is space to move around and visit with friends. The largest level is a step up.

Namaste!

Here's a letter to a friend in Florida hit by Hurricane Ian. The tone is weird: an affected affectlessness.

Dear Dave McFarlane,

I’ve been sitting by the English Coulee and eating a piece of pumpkin pie. You know how the Coulee wiggles its way from the west end of Grand Forks on up through UND.

And I have been wondering on the cool days lately where I put my gloves.

This is the week for Columbus Day, although it doesn’t get too much attention anymore. When I was in grade school we had to memorize a verse that started saying something like, “In 14 hundred and 92, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

Thanks for sending along an update on your recovery from the wild weather down there in Florida. You say it is in a way reminiscent of the flood of 1997 here in Grand Forks. Back then, some blamed the weather service here for saying the flood level would reach 49 feet when it ended at 54 feet.

In Fort Myers you say they predicted a storm surge of 6 to 8 feet landing in Tampa. And on the day of the day of the hurricane they changed the landfall to Fort Myers to a 10 to 14 feet surge.

Then they placed your community in a mandatory evacuation zone. And it was too late by then as the winds and rain had already started. And you had no place to go.

You made it through the storm. You had no place to go.

Well, at least you are very impressed with the clean-up process and the way things are going.

Now that you are cleaned out, you say you are trying to estimate the extent of the damage. Your home looks good, but you say it took a beating.

And you had no place to go.
You had no place to go.

Now that you are cleaned out, you say you are trying to estimate the extent of the damage.

And I have been wondering on the cool days lately where I put my gloves.

She should be Poet Laureate

And I have been wondering on the cool days lately where I put my gloves.

- Sei Shōnagon

every sentence the punchline of a kōan

And you had no place to go.

It was a fantastic meal and with it I felt like I was being folded into another new family.
===Dan S
six salad choices
20 choices of pizza
Pork chops are
among six
offerings of poultry and pork.
There are
eight choices of seafood.
Steaks are
listed.
And liver and onions
— rarely found available —
is served with
choices of potato and coleslaw.
There are
10 choices of burritos
with tostados
and enchiladas
available.
The largest level is a step up.
The largest level is a step up.
Desserts are
plentiful
on the Shananigan menu.
There’s
cheesecake,
Mexican fried ice cream,
fudge brownie sundaes.
Also
lava cake,
turtle
cheesecake
along with
sundaes
The largest level is a step up.
The largest level is a
step
up.

Sorry, I haven't eaten supper yet,
don't know what it will be.

Sweet potato
Successfully heated.
Baked beans with brown sugar,
Fresh from the can,
Barely began,
New microwave went out.
On another old counter,
In another old outlet,
With the same adapter,
3-to-2,
Just press Quick 30,
This time it works.
The sweet potato
is still warm enough
to blend nicely with the
baked beans with brown sugar,
though not up to code.

what is a "pleasant restroom area"?

having seen dozens upon dozens of unpleasant restrooms, I think I have an instinctive appreciation of this distinction.

This small review seems to have something for everyone.

This made cackle for some reason

'Restroom area' to me implies both the restroom and the hallway leading to the restroom. Those hallways can sometimes be pleasant.

enter the age of bots writing restaurant reviews

https://web.archive.org/web/20130809042020/https://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/231419/

"On a hot summer day, I will try the raspberry lemonade that was recommended."

interesting to add a promise of a future act in a restaurant review rather than evaluation of the actual visit

"I will, fine, try this swill recommended by people whose opinions I once trusted."

When the people in Haggerty's primary audience, who live in the Dakotas and sometimes eat in those restaurants, complain that her reviews do not meet their needs or interests, then she can be said to be a bad restaurant reviewer with an inadequate grasp of her job requirements. I'm sure she understands this and finds both puzzling and amusing the attention given to her reviews by people who will never consult them for their primary purpose, which is describing local restaurants to a local audience.

Thanks, Aimless.

lol

"I love olive garden! But not this one. So very disappointed with this meal! One of the salads had the lettuce stem. The kids noodles & sauce was cold! Everything else was still hot. The bread sticks seemed a little overcooked."

Amy Lynn - "local guide" - from Google Maps

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Olive+Garden+Italian+Restaurant/@47.8914883,-97.0685705,14.5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xa0cd7582ae110816!8m2!3d47.8903201!4d-97.0721967

Either I've lost my ability to post, or I can't post a link from CNN.com, but:

Oath Keepers spent over $400 at post-US Capitol riot feast at the Olive Garden, prosecutors say

After the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, members of the Oath Keepers met for a late-night dinner at an Olive Garden in suburban Virginia and spent hundreds of dollars on an Italian feast.

“ALCON: Going to eat at Olive Garden,” Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes allegedly said to an encrypted Signal chat for the militia group the evening of the Capitol riot using what prosecutors say is a military abbreviation for “all concerned.”

OATH KEEPERS: We just wanted to call to tell you how much we enjoyed your Olive Garden review.

MARILYN: Oh, I'm sure you did.

I’m wondering how many rounds of free breadsticks they plowed through.

They probably put ketchup on them

FL contingent unite! <3

Defense lawyers for Rhodes have previously addressed the dinner, saying that prosecutors’ theory of the episode is incorrect. Rhodes’ lawyers said in a court filing the dinner is evidence that the militia leader wasn’t working to foment a revolution.

“The conditions would never be better. Yet, Rhodes and the others left the Capitol grounds and went to Olive Garden for dinner,” lawyers for Rhodes wrote. “The answer is quite simple: because stopping the certification, overthrowing the government, was not Rhodes’ intent. It was not the Oath Keepers’ intent.”

Ah yes, the Olive Garden defense.

“ALCON: Going to eat at Olive Garden,” is the new “FAP?”

$400 doesn't necessarily seem like that much depending on the size of the paramilitary death squad though

The last weekend of October arrives with Hawks hovering over Grand Forks and ready to play football.

Although they have not counted, the Hawks have noticed people in cars and on airplanes heading west towards Las Vegas. There the UND hockey team will take center stage. It’s the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game with Arizona State on Saturday.

Halloween hovers over Grand Forks these days.

leave me out of this

He said Grand Forks.

And i said leave me out of this

Its reminds me of how the COlumbine shooters were bowling earlier in teh day

and received soup as a prize

They drank the soup. It was hot. There were ferns in the planters.

In the lowest of sea levels, Grand Forks is welcoming a new restaurant — Mt. Everest 8,848 feet.

Since its opening this month, the small, cozy restaurant has been visited by a variety of curious guests. They wonder and want to see a restaurant named after a world’s highest peak has its name chosen for the lowest level reading of Grand Forks.

There is a glassed in display of foods that are on the menu. Appetizers include naan bread and neplai pan puri. The food is designed for eating in or takeout.

Twenty entrée choices include a creamy butter chicken ($10.99) and Himalayan Thupka ($8.99). The choices are pictured on the menu.

There are desserts — desi sweets and Nepali rice pudding.

The restaurant opened formally with an introduction by ambassadors from the Grand Forks Chamber last week.

The restaurant is small, attractive and cozy. There is seating at tables or on chairs at the bar. There is a buffet style counter where customers can order their choices.

Owners of the restaurant have other businesses in Grand Forks. There’s Haaam-ro Bazar, an international market, and Blessed Homecare with non-medical service for anyone over 18. The couple have two young children who seem to feel at home n the restaurant.

My second visit to the restaurant was interesting with curious companions including Matt Dunlevy who were pleased with the new restaurant and the experience of eating there.

curious companions

You rang?

Wait, I'm confused. Is it a buffet, or do you order?

Also I am given to understand that "naan bread" means "bread bread"