North Dakota Restaurant Review Goes Viral
Even in North Dakota, when you're here, you're family.
Why would an Olive Garden Review put North Dakota on the national news map? Because, sometimes, and Olive garden is the new big thing. And now Marilyn Hagerty even has her own fake twitter! That is how you know that you have arrived!
I grew up with a grandma who was an amateur food reviewer. She did not have a newspaper column, but she did write a weekly family letter. In that letter she would let us know much of what she ate in the previous week, and she really liked it when she went to Bob Evans on her birthday, she got a percentage off based on her age…and got free cake. I remember when Grandma’s sister, Elizabeth (our Lizzie’s namesake) had her first burrito (it may have been from Taco Bell, it may have been at a family member’s home) and she was over the moon with it. She called it a burrto.
So when the news broke this week after Grand Forks Herald columnist, Marilyn Haggerty, age 85, became a national sensation after writing a review of Grand Fork’s brand new Olive Garden Restaurant, I pretty much imagined my grandma writing that review.
And for those of you who have never experienced the living on the moon experience that is North Dakota: although Olive Garden has been a part of American culture for 30 years, Bismarck just got one in 2008…and it was front page news. So, when Grand Forks, North Dakota opened an Olive Garden, in 2012, it was big news. Marilyn had been to an Olive Garden restaurant before, but seriously folks, this is big news for Grand Forks. In the words of Hagerty:
All in all, it is the largest and most beautiful restaurant now operating in Grand Forks. It attracts visitors from out of town as well as people who live here.
Admittedly, I get annoyed when I see all of the attention going to the big chain restaurants. I rarely eat at them. I eat at an Olive Garden on average once a year and am underwhelmed every time. The problem is that I’m a decent home cook. Possibly a bit better than decent. To take my entire family to dinner at a venue such as the Olive Garden would cost nearly a week’s worth of groceries here. If I’m going to blow that much on one dinner (and we do occasionally), I’d rather have a casually paced meal in quiet Pirogue Grille, where the menu is fresh, seasonal and local. I can make chicken alfredo in my sleep, and my kids can heat up frozen breadsticks.
As for the Grand Forks restaurant scene, I’d prefer to see places like the Toasted Frog get more attention, but then again, I just can’t picture my grandma having a late lunch or early supper there…so I’m not sure it is going to make the Eatbeat column anytime soon.
I think it is great that this woman is getting her 15 minutes of fame. She even appeared on today’s CBS This Morning via satellite from Fargo. I say way to go!
I agree with you. I also prefer home-cooked meals, if not those dishes from small restaurants. The best thing about those small places is that you know the proprietor and the chef (most likely the same person) and you can feel the intimacy of the place.
I have always found my Olive Garden coupons in the Sunday paper. If you don’t get the Sunday paper you could ask a friend or family member to be on the lookout for Olive Garden coupons for you.
Chef Stuart is exceptionally talented. Pirogue is the best in ND.
It is superb! By far my favorite place to eat, outside of my own kitchen!
Twitter: dakotapam
This is really very true! I prefer eating home-cooked meal than on restaurants and especially on food chain.. Their food are usually has full of preservatives..
All I can say is congratulations to Olive Garden and whatever it is that made you the restaurant for the hour, keep it up!