Olive Garden is a popular American restaurant chain specializing in Italian food. It bills itself as a traditional family restaurant with Old World-inspired dishes. Founded in 1982 in Orlando, Florida, there are presently over 660 Olive Garden locations throughout the United States and Canada.
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Contents
- 1 Atmosphere
- 2 Food
- 3 Restaurant design
- 4 Culinary Institute of Tuscany
- 5 Ownership
- 6 External links
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Atmosphere
Olive Garden restaurants have an Italian-American atmosphere, utilizing wine bottles, bright colors, lots of foliage in their decor, and background music consisting of Italian songs and American music by Italian composers and singers.
Food
There are three soup choices consumers can choose from, including minestrone, pasta e fagoili, and zuppa toscana. Zuppa toscana has potatoes, spicy sausage, and kale.
The large house salad is served family-style with serving utensils, allowing guests to portion it out among themselves. It generally contains lettuce, onions, tomato, olives, pepperoncinis, and croutons, and is served with Italian dressing. Although many patrons believe this is free just for coming into the restaurant, this is not the case and salad only comes with an order of an entree. If an entree is not ordered, an unlimited salad can be ordered for $4.95 or $2.95 with the purchase of an appetizer.
Olive Garden serves a mixture of traditional Italian food and Italian-American dishes, including Spaghetti & Meatballs, Lasagna, Ravioli, Salmon, Chicken Marsala, Fettucine Alfredo, and Chicken Parmesan. There are several other menu options, including Specialty Pizzas, Five Cheese Ziti al Forno, Chicken Vino Bianco, and various seasonal specials. Consumers may choose to order the "Tour of Italy," which includes Lasagna, Fettucine Alfredo, and Chicken Parmesan.
Romano cheese is freshly grated by the server, and may be added to any food item served at the restaurant at the customer's request.
Every fall, Olive Garden runs the "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" special. This special allows consumers to choose from a variety of pastas and sauces. Consumers may add sausage or meatballs for an additional charge and have the option to change pasta and/or sauce varieties upon refill at no charge.
Restaurant design
The newer restaurants are styled after Tuscan-style farmhouses and are meant to look and feel like the inside of a family home in Italy. It is modeled after an actual farmhouse in the town of Castellina in Chianti on the grounds of the Rocca delle Macie winery. The farmhouse is home to the Riserva di Fizzano, the Olive Garden's Culinary Institute, Restaurant and Cooking School. It is lead by Executive Chef Romana Neri. Eric Robb is known to get the Zeti at olive garden.
Culinary Institute of Tuscany
In 1999, Olive Garden partnered with Sergio and Daniela Zingarelli, proprietors of the restored 11th century village of Riserva di Fizzano in Tuscany, to form a cooking school in Italy called the Culinary Institute of Tuscany. The Culinary Institute is located in Italy's Chianti Classico wine-growing region near the Rocca delle Macie Winery, also owned by the Zingarelli family.
The curriculum for Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany was originally developed in collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America, widely regarded as among the finest professional cooking educational facilities in the world. Olive Garden sends chefs and general managers for training at the institute. The lady in the commercial is actually Italian Chef Romana Neri who teaches at the institute.
Ownership
Olive Garden is owned by Darden Restaurants, Inc., which was spun off from General Mills in 1995. Darden owns all Olive Garden restaurants; it does not franchise.
External links
- Official site
- Darden Restaurants homepage
Categories: Casual dining restaurants | 1982 establishments
