Olive Garden: Not what it once was

[Jeepnokc]

The hedge fund guys attempting to takeover the Darden board of directors say that OG prepares too much stuff on site. Also they give away too many breadsticks and don't salt their pasta water not to mention they own too much real estate. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Starboard gets their way. Perhaps they will start serving Italian from a can.

Saw an article I believe in the Wall Street about what they say is the real motivation behind Starboard wanting control, Real Estate. Apparently, OG owns most of their buildings and property. (If I remember correctly, more than all the other chains. This provides financial security during the lean years as they are not having to pay outrageously high rent. They will split the company into two with one owning the real estate and the other owning the restaurant. They can then sell off the Real Estate realizing huge profits leaving the restaurant side having to rent their space.

[ctchandler]

OKBBEA,
Oh, but what a way to go!
C. T.

Life's to short to eat mediocre food.....Trust me. Every bite of mediocre BBQ I take, doing research for my blog, shortens my life. I can feel my self die a little every time it hits my palette.

[kevinpate]

Saw an article I believe in the Wall Street about what they say is the real motivation behind Starboard wanting control, Real Estate. Apparently, OG owns most of their buildings and property. (If I remember correctly, more than all the other chains. This provides financial security during the lean years as they are not having to pay outrageously high rent. They will split the company into two with one owning the real estate and the other owning the restaurant. They can then sell off the Real Estate realizing huge profits leaving the restaurant side having to rent their space.

Gekkoing the Garden

[Edgar]

I scratched OG after the ceo whined about the ACA, same with Red Lobster and the supposed tapas place by the Garage in Norman. Any others I should know about. Please inform so I can continue my important crusade. Think they're about to break.

[soonermike81]

I too don't understand why so many people are harsh on the chains. Most chains are chains for a reason, right? They more than likely started out as a single restaurant, and got such a good following, that they expanded. Are you guys going to start ripping S&B if they start expanding outside OKC and beyond?? Also, I've been to OG maybe twice in the past 2 years and I did not feel like they were trying to portray an upscale image. I thought they served decent food at reasonable prices. Prices didn't seem out of line with what we were getting.

[TheTravellers]

I personally don't do national chains much because you can usually get better food at a non-chain (or smaller local chain) place. It baffled me that OG was patronized so much in the Chicago area with soooooooooooooo many much better local Italian places around every few miles or so, no matter where you are. Similar to Kevin, I go where the good food is, and sometimes it's national chains (not often, though, and there are plenty of local non-chains that have crappy food too), sometimes it's a small local place, sometimes it's a local chain...

[tfvc.org]

I personally don't do national chains much because you can usually get better food at a non-chain (or smaller local chain) place. It baffled me that OG was patronized so much in the Chicago area with soooooooooooooo many much better local Italian places around every few miles or so, no matter where you are. Similar to Kevin, I go where the good food is, and sometimes it's national chains (not often, though, and there are plenty of local non-chains that have crappy food too), sometimes it's a small local place, sometimes it's a local chain...

Problem is that once a restaurant gets so big the original owners do not have as much hands on control as they once did, corners start to get cut and quality starts to lack. When they get really big and national then to keep consistency sauces start to come in packages, food starts to come from factories and bakeries, and the control the owners once enjoyed are handed off to managers of different levels. Although it is comforting that I can eat at an OG in CA and then in FL and the quality of the food is the same (which a lot of consumers enjoy) sometimes it is good to go outside of your comfort level and try something different.

[Plutonic Panda]

Well, for me, Chili's is the worst. They have fallen off it seems.

[PennyQuilts]

Life's to short to eat mediocre food.....Trust me. Every bite of mediocre BBQ I take, doing research for my blog, shortens my life. I can feel my self die a little every time it hits my palette.

I avoid commercial bbq like the plague. If it hits it, great. But so many are just meh. Husband's bbq spoiled me for restaurant bbq crapshoot.