Why you should NOT eat at
	The Olive Garden

When you're here, you're family.  The kind of family that we won't fucking leave alone until you buy some wine from us.

The following are some responses to the olive garden essay.   I have fixed the spelling and the grammar on some (not all) of them, but if the respondents wish me to change their missives back, I shall. I encourage people to use the bulletin board to respond. There are a lot more comments there, including some from people who work there.

you're right--
the company's main focus is wine--
how do I know?
I work for one.
I am a manager.
In the process of changing careers.--but can't let go for another four or five months. When alcohol related deaths are amongst the highest in history--where DWI's keep going up and up and up and fetal alcohol syndrome is at its highest, this company continues to push alcohol. It is all about alcohol sales--that's it--friends and family--ok--maybe once upon a time--and they 'pretty up' their words with phrases like "when you're here, you're family" "we are looking to change the CULTURE about wine" whatever--the last audex/voicemail we recieved from our senior vice president told us that we as managers were OBVIOUSLY not working to change behaviors in our serving staff to allow them to sell more wine to our guests because we are not at our .11 goal in slaes over last year. So the bottom line is that the managers get ALL the crap for it.Because WE cannot hold our servers accountable for bringing that wine bottle to EVERY table---(as if that convinces people to drink)

It is always about wine--wine wine wine--they ask you all the time--what is our number one focus????
wine--- that's it--be all and end all and it did NOT used to be that way--there was a major changing of the guard last year and they are dead set on numbers numbers numbers--alcohol sales alcohol sales alcohol sales--

and they are opening 200 new restaurants in the next year--scary.

almost TOO big of a coorporation.
don't like it getting out.
the money is above average--but you sell your soul to have it.

not to mention the hours and NO PERSONAL LIFE

see ya

P.S. I used to love my job--loved it it was fun--exciting-different every day if it were still like that I wouldn't be feeling like this.

Dude, be glad you don't work at o.g. If you think what WE do to you is bad what do you think THEY do to US to get us to sell sell sell!  I'm talking meetings meetings meetings - posting of sales results (how would you like to be in the bottom 5 of that list!) also prizes and pins etc. etc. for top sales. Why do I keep working there? Because there are so many morons I can talk into buying wine (which by the way I HATE & you couldn't PAY me to drink that crap) that I make tons of $$$$.

[I asked about the wine in specific, and I received this reply]

They tell-no demand we push the wine. You get in big trouble if you don't take a bottle to the table w/you.  Now there's a new thing were you are supposed to take 2 or 3 bottles with you but like I said I don't mind cause anything you can do to run the check up raises your tip. And since the majority of our store's customers are cheap old fucks who will sit in the lobby for an hour and a half just to eat soup and salad and will NEVER tip more then 15%, anything I can talk them into I do!

We went to the Olive Garden yesterday. When we received our bill there was a little love note informing us they no longer take personal checks. We informed the manager that this is the only way we intended to pay. He took the check "this time", and told us they would be happy to accept cash. I will not go to the bank in order to order. What happened to convenience and spontaneity?? We informed him we will never be back. Besides, the food is getting mediocre. (and yes, the wine thing is irritating, what happened to suggestions being about the food?)

[I add a few comments of my own below, but I have tried to keep them sparing]

I find your "overly dramatizing" piece on the Olive Garden to be hilarious. The fact that you would spend hours on a website to criticize the fact that you were offered wine at a restaurant makes me a little unsure as to what you could do for a living, if you do anything at all. I wonder if you've ever worked in the food and beverage industry....

I also wonder if when you walk into a Mexican restaurant and get offered a margarita you "flip out" at them! How about a pint of Guinness at an Irish pub?? Oh No!! When I think of Italy or an Italian restaurant I actually think of wine, (whether or not I choose to drink it).

[To answer the writer's questions : I'm a professor. The essay didn't take hours. I've never worked in the food and beverage industry, although being the stock-boy for a hair-care products distributor has its own set of stories, and I don't flip out when offered a margarita at a Mexican restaurant, Guinness at an Irish Pub, or even a glass of wine at a real Italian restaurant. I believed the essay made it clear to what I was objecting re: the Olive Garden, but as a non-professional writer, I evidentally was not able to convey my thoughts adequately to the email's author.

The writer finds it funny that I took the time to write an essay about the Olive Garden. Presumably she also finds it funny that she took the time to write a lengthy response, and hilarious that she took the time to write not one, not two, but three separate emails asking me when I would be posting her thoughts on my website. It did take me a month, but I do have a full-time job.]

I worked at the Olive Garden for almost 3 years as a server and a bartender and occasionally still dine there. After reading your essay on "why not to dine at the Olive Garden," I decided to look at the restaurant closer. When I first walk in... what do I see? smell? hear?.... WINE??? Umm no... sorry. I hear the crazy "Amore" song that I used to sing for all those years, I smell the Lasagna and Chicken Parm that I would serve to thousands of people each week, and aside from the smiling hostess in the front, and the line out the door, I see beautiful murals of Italy and potted plants and trees. I'm taken to my table, where there are wine glasses on them.... A true sign of class, But maybe you've never been in a four star restaurant. I'm greeted by my server who tells me about some of the specials on the menu and is carrying a bottle of wine that would enhance the taste of those specials.

[I am suprised that the writer has received enough money from her Olive Garden job to visit many four-star restaurants. But it is clear that her experience at the Olive Garden has helped her to form her defininition of "a true sign of class." I respectfully disagree with her, because the few four-star restaurants I've visited have not pushed wine as the Olive Garden has, and the many Italian restaurants I have visited have offered me wine without being in the least bit pushy. I suppose we define Class a little differently. Fair enough.]

Hmm.. do I want wine? Do I like wine? ..... (Questions that go through everyone's head as they are asked) and as the server pours me a FREE sample to taste it....[A sample for FREE? Tarnation! That is Class!] I figure there is no harm. Maybe I'll find an appreciation for the drink as I have with margarita's and pints of Guinness or maybe I'll hate it, but seriously... WHAT'S THE HARM? Did it take three minutes out of your busy schedule? Well, if that's a big deal.. go to McDonald's!! I tried the sample of Kendall Jackson Chardonnay... did I get the wine? No. Why? I opted for the Italian Margarita instead.... Maybe I'm not a big wine drinker, maybe you aren't as well... but was I offended that I had a 3 minute conversation with my server about the specials and wines that go with them? NO.

My friend showed me your letter off the website thinking I would find it funny since I "used" to work at the Olive Garden. I'm sure he never thought I would react this way to it. There are many things that the Olive Garden could do to improve it's guest satisfaction and hospitality policies, But I think that eliminating wine presentations isn't one of them. No matter what they do, if people like you come in with the cynical viewpoints and sarcastic attitudes they will always fail. [As I said at the beginning of my essay, I used to like the Olive Garden. My viewpoint was neither cynical nor sarcastic - I am as a wide-eyed loving babe when I go somewhere that serves lasagna.] It's just a good thing that millions of people are not like you and keep the Olive Garden busy! In all of my years at the Olive Garden, I will always remember praying that I wouldn't have to serve people like you. [You asked God to deliver you from portly, friendly gentlemen with nice dates who leave very large tips? I suppose we differ on matters of theology as well.]

Sincerely- Jill L.

I work in the kitchen at olive garden and let me tell you, after seeing what I have seen I never want to eat there.

Not to mention the waste at the end of the night!! they had this whole campaign about "the war on waste" yet they will throw away a perfectly good freshly made batch of Alfredo sauce when it is time to close. Imagine how much that could feed, considering there is about a gallon of it in one batch and the stingy bastards only serve guests about 4 oz.of it in a meal, plus all the lasagna that they just pitch in the trash right out of the oven if it was cooked too late. I'm tellin ya, I work there and since we have to pay for our meals and can't eat unless we are off the clock (by the end of the night I'm just glad to be going home and don't want to stay another minute) I think since I have started working there I have only had a total of maybe 2 breadsticks a night and since they work their employees to death, that's the only thing I get to eat in a day, and THEY EVEN CHARGE US FOR BREADSTICKS!!! If they are free to the guests, why aren't they free for us too? The floors are so slippery that I have fallen quite a few times twisting my ankle once or twice and just because they don't feel like doing the paperwork I have to limp around for 3 days (still going to work) without any workers comp or anything. I have just been told by my doctor that I have a hernia from lifting heavy things that I told my lovely bosses that I couldn't lift, and because I have doctors orders not to lift over 5 lbs. for a week and to go see a surgeon, they send me home with no pay and threaten to fire me!!! You think you have it bad as a guest, the Olive Garden doesn't even know how to treat their employees right let alone their guests. And the pay sucks too... we are required to have an employee review every 6 months to determine a raise and there are people that have been there for 7,8 years that are quitting because they slacked off on the raises, and just because they get their big bonuses for keeping hours below 40 a week for everyone, they are too greedy to share the wealth and give us our money that we earn and deserve. [You are wrong here. Jill L. dines regularly at four star restaurants on her Olive Garden money.] They just sit in the office on their asses and make us run the whole damn store. that's all I have to say in my little rant. You may share this with the world.. Thanks.

If you are fortunate enough to receive a gift certificate in the form of a credit card like package, you need to start using it fairly soon, otherwise, alas, they begin to subtract "service charges" from the original balance. Ultimately, if you don't use it at all, for a long enough period of time, the whole amount will be eaten up in charges you've incurred for not using it. Yes, that's right, they got the use of the $50 purchase price, interest free for all this time, and they reward you for their use of this money by gradually reducing the amount they owe you in "service". Oh, and would you care for some wine with your screwing?

Bill

There are other responses to the essay on the bulletin board. I would urge you to check it out, and add your comments there as well. (It takes time for me to post emailed comments on this page, whereas bulletin-board comments are posted for all to read instantly. Many people have posted comments there)