Olive Garden has a lot of skeletons in its closet.
If customers looked past the cheap pseudo-Italian decor, they might stumble upon a few secrets
Olive Garden doesn't want them to know.
From PR fails to bad track records to a total lack of authentic food, Olive Garden would
really rather you didn't watch this video.
"Olive Garden's taking all-you-can-eat to a whole new level.
The chain now is introducing a never-ending pasta pass."
Sometimes a great idea is ruined by poor execution.
It took a never-ending pasta promotion for Olive Garden to learn that lesson.
The idea sounds great on paper: The company offered one-thousand never-ending pasta passes
to the public... for the ridiculously low price of $100.
"Well, you do the math, I'm doing the alfredo."
For those seven weeks, those 1,000 lucky pasta lovers could eat all the pasta they wanted.
"They're trying to bring people back in here, a lot of chains have struggled, as you know."
"What it cost?"
"It's a hundred bucks."
The sale was over in 45 minutes and it left a lot of people very angry.
The passes were supposed to be available on the Olive Garden website at 3 p.m. on the
designated day, but the website was swamped and kept crashing as people tried completing
their orders.
According to an Olive Garden spokeswoman, the website received 500,000 visitors in the
first 30 minutes.
But since only a thousand customers successfully purchased their pasta pass, hundreds of thousands
of customers were left in the dust.
Plus, instead of running straight for their pasta paradise, a lot of winners sold their
winning ticket on Ebay.
More than 50 passes were up for auction by the following day, with some bids getting
close to $400.
Olive Garden's food won't be setting the world on fire anytime soon, except for maybe these
guys:
"Oooh, breadsticks!"
"it's a chance for us to catch up."
"So is Donna still in the picture?"
"Maybe."
In 2006, one Indianapolis Olive Garden landed in hot water when they unwittingly served
373 customers one highly unpleasant dining experience.
Norovirus is particularly contagious, and causes vomiting and diarrhea.
What's worse, it's often spread by eating food tainted with the feces or vomit of another
infected person.
"Grandma had come up for a visit."
"So we took her to our Olive Garden."
"Just us girls."
As soon as that Indianapolis Olive Garden was identified as the source of the outbreak,
it was closed and scrubbed.
But if employees had just been more enthusiastic about scrubbing themselves, the whole ordeal
could've been avoided.
Like many "casual dining" restaurants, Olive Garden has seen a steady decline in sales
over the last few years.
So the bosses at Olive Garden put their heads together and decided the logo really needed
a makeover.
Admittedly, that old green script on a stucco textured background was looking a bit outdated:
"Come, see what's growing in the garden!"
On the other hand, at least it was distinctive.
"We're all family here!"
The 2014 logo refresh was totally unremarkable, and people weren't having it: Olive Garden's
parent company saw the value of their stock drop by five percent after the new logo was
revealed.
They should just go back to this campaign, right?
"What's saucy?
What's crinkly?
What's sweet?
What's twirling and whirling?
What's oohing and aahing?"
Kansas City police officer Michael Holsworth didn't want any trouble: He just wanted to
meet his family at Olive Garden to celebrate his birthday.
In a 2015 Facebook post, Holworth claimed he entered an Olive Garden in Independence,
Missouri and was soon approached by a member of the staff, who informed him that guns weren't
allowed in the restaurant.
Apparently the news was so startling to Fox correspondent Greta Van Susteren, it left
her tongue-tied:
"... Whether it's soup, salad, or breadstricks, but don't bring your gun.
Even if you are a police officer in uniform."
Seeing as he was on-duty and wearing his uniform, Holsworth initially thought the employee was
joking.
The public backlash was swift, particularly from cops and concealed-carry supporters.
"The kicking out, making him leave the restaurant, I think is disrespectful.
I mean, they maybe could have handled it a little differently.
Maybe… 'put your gun in your squad car.'"
Olive Garden wasted no time defending itself.
"Olive garden says the president of the restaurant, Dave George, reached out to the officer tonight
over the phone and he apologized."
Considering they don't have health benefits and are required to share tips, it's no wonder
Olive Garden employees can be unhappy.
Still, that doesn't excuse the actions of former waiter Jason Kisner, who was fired
in 2016 for falsely telling customers he had cancer, just to get better tips.
"Right now, a breaking update on a server fired from Olive Garden for a lie we're told
he used on customers to increase his tips."
Witnesses reportedly overheard him bragging to other staffers about receiving a one-hundred
dollar tip because of the lie.
When the story started circulating on social media, more customers came forward and admitted
they also gave Kisner tips, some as high as $125.
When Olive Garden became aware of the scam, they fired Kisner and released this statement:
"This individual's actions are inconsistent with our company's values and he no longer
works for us.
We are working to contact the guests and we will reimburse them for the $125 they gave
the server."
"When you see people that are going through something, you want to be a blessing to them.
But when you see people out there who are really scamming people, that really wanna
be a blessing to folks…?"