Could not happen to a more deserving megacorp. From the Washington Post‘s Wonkblog:
This time last year, Neil took a look at the strong results from Darden Restaurants, the parent company of such middle-class standbys as Olive Garden, Red Lobster and the slightly more aspirational Capital Grille. The healthy financials hid a sad truth about the economy: Darden had been able to reduce labor costs because workers, desperate for jobs, didn’t have the leverage to ask for better pay.
Well, the next year didn’t go so well. Darden’s stock took a dive, and is still looking a little anemic. Despite in-store remodels, in yesterday’s quarterly earnings report the company disclosed that Red Lobster, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse sales were down 3.3 percent, and the chief operating officer was leaving (always a suspicious sign). So what does the bottomless pasta bowl indicator tell us about the economy now?…
While the WaPo commentors leaned towards “There comes a tipping point where the overburdened, underpaid staff is sufficiently demoralized that they make dining there depressing”, I personally credit “one too many corner-cutting food poisoning incidents“.
Mark S.
The missus and I went to On The Border tonight and it was a pretty depressing experience all around. I was pretty impressed by how understaffed the restaurant was. There was no hostess and we were seated next to a table where there had obviously been a large party and the table wasn’t bussed the entire time we were there.
I was shocked when I learned several months ago that wait staff still make $2.30 or whatever an hour (I had assumed it got bumped up when they raised the minimum wage). Unless you’re at a real upscale restaurant, I don’t know how the hell you’re supposed to live on that.
BBA
@Mark S.: The minimum wage for wait staff is $2.13 an hour before tips. If it’s not up to the standard $7.25 including tips the restaurant has to make up the difference. In theory anyway.
Chris
I blame Obamacare.
/wingnut
The Dangerman
That’s the thing about the Right complaining that businesses are cutting workers below 30 hours to prevent them from getting health care; well, one, obviously they weren’t getting health care previously and, two, there will be a tipping point where the workers can just tell the business “Fuck you, I quit”. Thanks to Republican policies, the cost of job shifting was high and workers had to “take it”; that will change (and none too soon).
Bobby D
Pundits, can’t quite grasp the obvious. Pierce gets it: People got no jobs, people got no money.
I’m sure the depressing overworked underpaid staff doesn’t help. But seriously, Kaplan Testprep Daily, when even the lower middle tier of eateries are circling the drain, maybe clue into the obvious fact that the robber baron gilded age 2.0 means the common man is broke.
Yatsuno
@Mark S.: Many servers are exempt from minimum wage laws on the theory that tips make up the difference in income. Washington State does not have that exemption, and a server at an upscale restaurant can actually make a decent living. Personally I think that exemption sucks.
PS: Olive Garden and Red Lobster both suck donkey balls. Which may or may not also be true for Chuckles Todd. Hey it’s not my job to report if that’s a lie.
Punchy
“Slightly more….Cap Grille…”? Is CG about $50 a plate? Seems a bit more than “slightly”. Seems like these fuckers have priced themselves out of the market.
Botsplainer
I’ve been involved on the legal side of too many restaurants to ever invest in a “seated dining” corporate chain. Margins are too thin, and costs and processes don’t scale as well as fast food. Plus, if you’re going to hand a $60 dinner check to a couple, they expect better than slop.
Joel
Speaking of tipping, what a goddamn scam. I would love to see a day where the restaurant-subsidy minimum wage is eliminated and they have to pay the same $15/hour that everyone else does.
The Dangerman
@Joel:
Seriously. I would gladly pay more for a meal if I didn’t have to tip at the end and it balanced out. I’d open a place of my own and all it “No Tips” (except that’s probably been taken by a circumcision clinic).
Violet
@Bobby D: If that’s the reason, then last year should have been worse for Darden, since the economy was worse and fewer people had jobs then. But they did better then than this year according to the article. Why the change?
Jennifer
Maybe what with being broke, people have decided that shelling out $12 per head for the swill they’re dishing up at Olive Garden is stupid. Seriously, Olive Garden is fucking inedible. And the longer people who used to not be able to tell how bad it is are unable to afford to eat there, the more noticeable it will be to them when they finally go back. It’s like that Far Side cartoon, except instead of cows exclaiming about “grass…we’ve been eating grass!” it will be “shit…we’ve been eating shit!”
srv
As goes Olive Garden, so goes the cranky old people
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Violet:
It may be that when people were forced to cook their own meals they found out what actual food tastes like.
Paddy
Just a wonderful LOL post. I’m going back to FoodSpin.
How To Make A Reuben Sandwich And Embrace Entropy
Suzanne
I haven’t been to an Olive Garden in years, and I only went THAT time because Spawn the Elder got to choose where we went to dinner that night, but I have to say that on the continuum of Crappy Chain Restaurants I Don’t Eat At, Olive Garden is not that bad.
Not like Chili’s, which once served me food so spoiled that I literally vomited and shat myself on the same time out on the sidewalk.
Seriously. Don’t go to Chili’s.
Jewish Steel
@The Dangerman:
@Joel:
I found this over at cleek’s site recently.
http://jayporter.com/dispatches/observations-from-a-tipless-restaurant-part-1-overview/
PsiFighter37
@Suzanne: Wow / TMI
Me, I’m watching Breakfast Club. I think I’m old because I think the movie’s contrived and the kids grate on my nerves. I would have really dug this movie about 12 years ago.
Sigh
Suzanne
@Jennifer: There’s a lot more fast casual places that have better food for less money, or you could spend not a whole lot more and get a really good meal.
That’s the thing about chain restaurants: THEY AREN’T CHEAP. If I got that food at McDonald’s prices, I would be pretty satisfied. But for the price of an Olive Garden meal, I can get something far better from a local place.
Suzanne
Cheesecake Factory is the chain restaurant that most earns my ire. Followed very closely by PF Chang’s. Expensive SHIT.
Violet
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Maybe so. But wouldn’t those people have been the ones cooking at home last year? Why did profits drop this year?
@Suzanne: So true. Chain restaurants are so often pricey and terrible. Why bother going? Eat local.
Suzanne
@Violet: The last time I was in a Cheesecake Factory was at least ten years ago but THEY HAD ADS IN THE MENUS. Fuck you! Stop advertising at me! I’m paying $20 for this bowl of pasta!
PsiFighter37
I was in NC and Olive Garden was packed – we had to wait 1/2 hour to get in. Imagine if I told these folks they could go to South Philly and get real authentic Italian for cheaper…most people in this country probably think Olive Garden is the pinnacle of Italian food in America.
Violet
@Suzanne: I remember that! It’s probably been 10 years since I’ve been there too. Wonder if their menus still have ads.
Suzanne
@PsiFighter37: The only funny part of that food poisoning story is this: as I barfed all over myself, a woman came up to me and asked if I was okay. I replied, “Uh….NO. Absolutely not.”
mai naem
@Suzanne: The guy who developed PF Changs came across as a Glibertarian, but beyond that, their food sux. The stuff tastes all the same and overly greasy. @PsiFighter37: We used to go Olive Garden, way back. I’ve been to OG 2x in the past 20 years, both times with friends who insisted on going there.
MikeJ
@PsiFighter37:
I saw it when it came out and hated it then. I was in college, so only marginally older than the twits in the pic. Of course I don’t think I liked any John Hughes films and I was in the demo in the 80s.
PsiFighter37
@Suzanne: That’s pretty quick reaction. I got food poisoning from Indian food a few months back, but it took a whole day for it to hit me. That was a really shitty day – lots of bathroom visits and having fucked-up dreams that kept me up all night while shivering.
PsiFighter37
@MikeJ: I don’t mind Sixteen Candles, at least I can see the appeal there. For this – I think it’s because I bitched and moaned about life when I was younger that I don’t have sympathy.
It’s real fucking simple – you either grow up, or you don’t and get left behind. Q.E.D.
PsiFighter37
@mai naem: It goes really the same for any chain. The only reason I would step inside an Outback Steakhouse nowadays would be because I have a soft spot for the Bloomin’ Onion – the steaks are so low-quality there, which I can now recognize after eating at proper steakhouses.
Suzanne
@mai naem: The Olive Garden on Southern and Alma School burned down a few years ago. It was kind of awesome,
John Revolta
Of course, the problem with the local restaurants is THEY DON’T ADVERTISE ON THE TEEVEE!
So, how’s a typical moran family supposed to find out about ’em?
PsiFighter37
@John Revolta: Go on Yelp. That’s what I do…although being in a big city like NYC definitely makes it more useful.
Jebediah
Absolutely correct! It’s up to HIM to get his competing message (that he doesn’t suck donkey balls, only mouse balls) out. Not your problem either way.
hamletta
@Paddy: I love Albert Burneko. He is hilarious.
raven
The bohdi has been yelping on and off all day. The princess came home and they are in the rack and the boy continues to cry. I gave him one of raven’s old pain pills but it doesn’t seem to have helped. I have a call in the the University Emergency Vet and am waiting for them to call back.
FlipYrWhig
@Yatsuno: Chuck Todd doesn’t strike me as a very discerning eater, either. I bet he’s eaten french fries out of ashtrays.
James E. Powell
I don’t like the food at any of the major chains. I know in many places there is nothing else available. But here in Los Angeles there are plenty of family-run, quality food places that are cheaper than the chains.
And then I realize that a lot of people actually like these places, enjoy the food and all, so what do I care?
piratedan
@FlipYrWhig: in a way, isn’t it wonderfully condescending of Mr. Todd to envision govermental policy that affects millions of lives as nothing more than an advertising message. Think on that for a bit. Plus his job is to do nothing more than to indicate that the “commercial” is out there, you decide on whether or not, as a “consumer” you decide if it matters to you.
Gian
IIRC they did the papa johns thing and what little business we gave ’em went away.
tell me that you think the slightly more than half of the country that includes me sucks, and I won’t buy your stuff.
seems like a fairly new event that large businesses mostly in the food genre have been spouting off in wingnut mode a lot more in the last 5 years than I remember in the last 20-30
in a business notorious for failure, I think announcing to more than half the country that you think they suck is a bad business model, but I’d bet that middle class restaurants are facing the same problem that middle class retailers like penny’s and sears face.
there ain’t much of a middle class
Yatsuno
@mai naem: There is absolutely zero reason to go to PF Chang’s. There are family-owned decent Chinese restaurants all over the country that have much better fare. I’ve only eaten there once, I was horribly underwhelmed. Especially for what I was paying.
opiejeanne
@MikeJ: I was in my 30s and liked some of the John Hughs movies (16 Candles), but that one really annoyed me. Didn’t much care for St Elmo’s Fire either.
Scotius
@piratedan:
Kind of makes you wonder what value his brand of “journalism” adds doesn’t it? After all, why don’t we just skip the overpaid middleman and read Obama’s and the GOP’s competing press releases and decide for ourselves who’s telling the truth?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Blogwhoring for the night shift — I have a new post up on my movie blog:
What The Heck is “Pre-Code”?
Feel free to ask questions in the comments — I’ll try to answer them in a timely manner.
opiejeanne
@PsiFighter37: Just like some people think Taco Bell is Mexican food. I mean, some people living in Southern California fer cryin’ out loud.
Some of the best Mexican joints are mom and pop places. I can’t tell you how much I hate El Torito.
piratedan
@Scotius: I’d like to think that these guys are quickly making themselves irrelevant. After all, after the last election, with all of the horse race shit that was being generated and Faux News and Unskewed Polls and all of that shit going on with Rasmussen, they keep pertuating this myth that America is Center Right, and you know, it may very well be. If so, Then is should be an indication that Obama is much closer to that position than the folks that R’s have been selecting as their candidates. Unsure if they’ll actually cop to that revelation or not, because after all, the MSM is being paid to willfully not perform as much of their mandate as possible it seems.
James E. Powell
@Gian:
in a business notorious for failure, I think announcing to more than half the country that you think they suck is a bad business model
I agree with you that until recently this sort of thing just wasn’t done, not by retailers. No matter how Dickensian their policies, they’d smile warmly in public and talk about how much they loved all the moms and children who they viewed as their friends. You know, like McDonald’s. But it’s like the masks all fell off January 20, 2009.
Other than anecdotes and stories of personal vows never to eat there again, have any chains suffered loss revenues as a result of their owner’s right-wing rants?
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Tell me where to find good Chinese food around your/my area, because we have been striking out.
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: There’s a pretty good place in Everett called Hong’s that I like. I also favour the Rickshaw but they also deliver to my house. It’s interesting how the Seattle area has great examples of every Asian cuisine but Chinese.
piratedan
@James E. Powell: I dunno Jim, but as a result of their rampant asshattery, I’ve never returned my business to Chick Fil’a, Whole Foods, and Poppa Johns, I buy paper products not manufactured by the Koch Bothers and stay out of Walmart. It’s not much but it’s what I can do as an informed consumer. I think the same thing is happening to network TV as folks start realizing that the MSM isn’t presenting a full picture, they turn elsewhere
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine: The Hollywood Production Code.
(I can’t imagine why these dancers are wearing jingle taps. It’s stupid)
http://youtu.be/iQqtmIrfUT8
James E. Powell
@piratedan:
the MSM is being paid to willfully not perform as much of their mandate as possible it seems.
Well who gave them any kind of mandate and what is their mandate? This is the source of the discord and dissatisfaction. Whatever we are expecting from Chuck Todd and every other person like him is clearly something that they never signed up for.
Like every other person on TV or cable, Chuck Todd understands that his job, his mandate, is to be Chuck Todd, the guy who is on TV and cable, and not Chuck Todd, the guy who used to be on TV and cable. He has no other mandate than his own career.
Chuck Todd might tell the truth, but not if it’s going to piss powerful people off. If the truth has a liberal bias, as it does in the case of Obamacare, then the last thing he is going to do is tell the truth and amplify that bias.
Pogonip
Our local Red Lobster actually is pretty good. Others I’ve been to left me underwhelmed. Not sure how our local RL is getting away with serving good food, but I hope it continues.
Keith P.
I wish the same fate on Landry’s Inc….Joe’s Crab Shack is horrible.
piratedan
@James E. Powell: well I have no issue at all with that take, the problem is greater than just the face on the screen willfully making himself a tool. The real problems with the media is who is deciding what is news and how to frame it. It used to be that there was real journalism in this country, not to say that there wasn’t also a thread of propaganda existent as well, but folks like Murrow, Cronkite, Chancellor, et al actually had gravitas and that was evident from the people that put them on that the images shown on TV, be they from Kent State, the Vietnam War or the Civil Rights marches that the news was presented in such a way that the facts of what was done, who these people were, what they were protesting was actually stated plainly without spin.
Nowadays, I feel that there are program directors and producers who mainly focus on revenue, how to hype the story, how does the parent company want this to be framed so that we can grab eyeballs and control another cycle. Very dangerous game to play and one in which I wish we had a vibrant/relevant FCC that would actually do their job of policing the airwaves and spare us the spin doctors and get back to a day where if the news was complicated, then fine, explain it and why it is complicated.
eemom
@raven:
Hope the doggie is ok. Please keep us posted.
(Have never seen you on a blog at this hour of the night, so know you are worried.)
Yatsuno
@piratedan: Sounds too much like work. Stenography is easier. Plus it ensures the Villagers get out of the office in time for Sally’s next soiree. Can’t miss cocktail weenie hour dontchaknow.
piratedan
@Yatsuno: I dunno Yutsy, I think in this current economic environment, we might find people willing to do the heavy lifting to actually be journalists, don’t you? Then Chuckie can find his next job as an assistant manager at your local Olive Garden.
James E. Powell
@piratedan:
the news was presented in such a way that the facts of what was done, who these people were, what they were protesting was actually stated plainly without spin.
I agree with you. There was never a time when the business was perfect or perfectly honest. But we did get the basic journalism who, what, when, where, why.
We all have our own memories, or our own ideas, of what happened in the 60s. For the people who own and run things in this country it was the worst time in American history because the basic arguments for their authority and status was called into question by a large number of people. Fortunately for them, those people were never unified nor inclined to work together. But it scared the shit out of the ruling class and they have worked very hard and spent a lot of money to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again.
piratedan
@James E. Powell: I’d agree although I don’t want to walk into the “conspiricy theory” setting, I do believe that there are folks in the upper class who like things just how they are tyvm and are more than willing to dictate and buy whatever is necessary to keep it that way. The thing is, these folks are trolling the same waters that got the Russian and French aristocracy killed and they had best wake up and realize that you can’t fuck over all of the people all of the time. Case in point, what happens to all of these well armed rednecks that they’ve been using as political cannon fodder trip to what’s really going on and sit around and ask themselves, are we really any better off oppressing the muslims and hispanics than we were doing the same thing to black folks a hundred and fifty years ago?
MikeJ
I just wish the teevee would stop showing the feel good psa that uses Annie’s Song. They keep playing it over and over, and every time I hear the opening bars, all I can think of is John Denver being strangled.
Yatsuno
@piratedan: Yer thilly. Why, the qualifications of Luke Russert and Jonah Goldberg to do their journalisms is totes impeccable. You act as if they’re replaceable when in fact our discourse would be diminished by their absence. Not to mention the appreciation of the wit and wisdom of Sally Quinn. Why, how would it look if she let mere proles attend her oh-so-important parties? Have you no consideration at all sir?
piratedan
@Yatsuno: nah… I’m a rank bastard, everybody knows that :-)… in fact we can fire them all and then they could do some investigative reporting on just how little government unemployement benefits provide…. you know, some undercover journalism :-)
Yatsuno
@piratedan: Unfortunately both Doughy Pantload and Pumpkinhead are quite rich. Neither one would actually ever need to work again a day in their lives and they would both be quite comfortable. Take away the family money though and we’re on to something.
piratedan
@Yatsuno: well alas, I guess all we can hope for is the imminent moment of schadenfruede when they become more of a punch line than a talking head, important only within their own ever shrinking bubble of pontification.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bobby D:
An obscure Scotsman figured this out more than two centuries ago.
Qtip
I talked with a former restaurant inspector. She said the chains were usual much cleaner. They have standard and procedures for cleaning that make a big difference. Your local joint may be cheaper and tastier big it likely comes with more germs!
morfydd
@Yatsuno
…you…eat? food from the Rickshaw? isn’t that taking your life into your own hands? ok, the last time I was there was 10 years ago for karaoke, and the food could have improved, but that seems so unlikely.
There used to be a brilliant hole-in-the-wall hot pot place just south on 85th and Greenwood, but they were burned out by an arsonist a few years ago. There are a few established Dim Sum places in the ID, of course, and a great noodle place just east of the ID.
20 years ago there were a lot more great Chinese places, but I think that wave of immigrants has assimilated and moved on to more lucrative professions. I miss having good Chinese food on every corner, but I guess that just leaves more room for good Thai and Vietnamese places.
Percysowner
@
: Seriously. I would gladly pay more for a meal if I didn’t have to tip at the end and it balanced out. I’d open a place of my own and all it “No Tips” (except that’s probably been taken by a circumcision clinic).
I do agree. There was an article in Slate a few months ago about a restaurant that raised its prices by 18%, used the raise to pay all their staff a living wage and saw the service get better. They also said no tipping. The outrage in the comments was incredible. The first group was those who swore that THEY tip more than that so the restaurant was slighting the servers who waited in them. The larger group were those who were furious that they couldn’t punish bad service at their own whim. No amount of arguing that if a server was bad they would be fired like any other employee in any other business was considered valid. Unless the patron was allowed to beat up some underpaid wait person, they were being deprived of their basic right to act superior and stick it to someone.
Baud
This is the crankiest thread ever. 10/10. LOL.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Yatsuno:
I once worked in a high end mall that had a Chang’s. The women’s clothing store upstairs from the restaurant had to send their stock out to be cleaned regularly because the fabrics became infused with a rank oil smell. Seriously, can’t you smell the bitter grease odor of a Chang’s from down the block?
ThresherK
@Suzanne: Where did you grow up?
I’m asking this in Serious Mode, as I’m a Yankee suburbanite, so I had a pile of friends whose grandmas never stopped making their own marinara or pizza on Sundays. That’s why Olive Gardens (for me) will never really succeed in my neck of the country: Even in my German-Irishness I know from decent Italian food.
Likewise, I’m sure that people from the American Southwest laugh at Chili’s. And a Red Lobster shouldn’t be able to survive within 50 miles of a one-time or current fishing port. (Gloucester, Stonington, New Bedford…)
Shalimar
@piratedan: When they get Tucker Carlsoned? Didn’t work with him, even after no media outlet would hire him he still had enough family money to start his own.
tybee
i guess i’m batting .500 with Darden’s group.
had an excellent meal in an Orlando Olive Garden and got food poisoning in a Red Lobster in Savannah back in 1984.
i’ve never been back to a Red Lobster since. 8 of us at a business dinner. 4 of us had an appetizer of oysters rockefeller, we all had the same main course. the 4 oyster eaters like to have died.
the Lobster said it wasn’t their fault and refused to do anything about it.
on several occasions, i’ve stopped a dozen or so in a group from going to a red lobster because i refused to set foot in the place.
currently, the best place to get seafood is in my house but the wait staff is surly and the cook is jerk.
polyorchnid octopunch
@piratedan: When that day comes, it’s going to get incredibly ugly.
Hey, just twigged to something, mebbe…. are you part of the IWTHM?
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Suzanne:
This. Chilis, Applebees, Perkins, Denny’s, Bubba Gump, Olive Garden, and any “fast food” are all on a “”DO NOT PATRONIZE””” list for me.
Never mind Walmart, Target, KMart, etc.
Glans
@PsiFighter37: Those were visions, Psi. You were enlightened.
Tokyokie
I used to live in Japan, where tipping is basically considered an insult. I enjoyed not having to calculate a tip, but frankly, I didn’t eat out that much because, like most things in Japan, it was so darn expensive. I remember once having the jones for BBQ ribs and went so far as to go down to Tony Roma’s, where I inspected the menu and decided that $40 for baby backs that I didn’t consider worthy of my consideration when I could get them for half that in the States, wasn’t a good idea, and I went back home and made myself a burger.
Suzanne
@ThresherK: Split my childhood between Long Island and Phoenix East Valley.
I’m not saying the Olive Garden is any good. I’m saying it’s never made me vomit. That is something I can’t say for other chains. Plus, if I absolutely have to go there, like with a group, I can just eat salad.
ksmiami
Olive Garden – The place you take your Italian relatives if you really REALLY hate them –
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@tybee:
Obviously, it’s much too late now, but what you do in that case is report the restaurant where you got the food poisoning to the local health department and they’ll send someone over to do a surprise inspection.
I did that one time because I got food poisoning from a salad with no meat in it, so I got a little freaked out by the thought of what the hell could be going wrong in that kitchen.
Linnaeus
@Yatsuno:
My go-to Chinese food place in Seattle is the Black Pearl. It helps that it’s only about 6 blocks away.
Linnaeus
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Did the salad have a cream- or cheese-based dressing? Because it’s easier to cross-contaminate a salad when it has dressings like that because bacteria really like them.
Chris
@piratedan:
Did they ever figure out that oppressing black folk a hundred and fifty years ago didn’t work out so well for them?
The Moar You Know
@PsiFighter37: Don’t go on Yelp. Yelp has magically transformed into an extortionate pay-to-play advertising scam, where a given business’ rating is wholly dependent on whether they are willing to kick down big bucks to advertise with their “partners” or not.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): 40% of all cases of food poisoning are eventually traced to lettuce.
Friend of mine’s an inspector and the one thing she will never eat in a restaurant is a salad.
KXB
@Suzanne:
I don’t reflexively dislike chains. In some cases, they can serve a role. If you are on a long road trip, and you are staying in a town for just one night, a chain gives you some idea of what to expect in terms of price and selection. Secondly, plenty of teens often get their first job waiting tables or working the register at a chain. A smaller restaurant will often just hire family.
The problem, for me anyway, is when some people will only go to chains. My parents are one such couple. PF Changs & Red Lobster are their go to places. They have no desire to try a smaller Chinese restaurant featuring a regional cuisine, or a hole-in-the-wall crab shack. God forbid you try to suggest Thai food to my dad. Seriously, I will often dine out alone with my Kindle, just so I can try something new. I’ve found some gems this way.
As for higher-end chains, I’ve found McCormick & Schmicks to have very good seafood, without blowing my wallet. We don’t have any Legal Sea Foods around here though.
VOR
Back in 2010, the Republican candidate for Governor of Minnesota claimed waitstaff make $100k per year. Interestingly, the head of the state Republican party at the time owned a local restaurant chain.
Mike G
@PsiFighter37:
most people in this country probably think Olive Garden is the pinnacle of Italian food in America.
One thing I find depressing about fast-growing southwest sprawl-metropolises like Dallas, Phoenix, Austin, etc. is the infestation of soul-sucking corporate restaurants. The locals think these places are awesome, and there are few local alternatives unless you happen to be near an older part of the metro area.
rikyrah
@opiejeanne:
I’m lucky because I have two good Chinese restaurants within a mile of my house.