Anthony Bourdain stepped in to defend her when her original review went viral, and then helped her publish a compilation of her reviews, a book for which he wrote the foreword.

I am hoping that they are spending an afterlife meeting up for regular lunch dates, where they each introduce each other to their respective favorite meals.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:55 PM on September 17 [22 favorites]

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:06 PM on September 17 [1 favorite]

Jesus effing heck, that Olive Garden review was not what I was expecting. I know enough people from the Upper Midwest to recognize an absolutely scathing rant when I read one.

She described a dish with two adjectives and one of them was ¡°warm¡±. The literal least you can expect in a restaurant. Warm and comforting! That¡¯s like saying a book was typo-free and comforting, and nothing else.

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posted by Kattullus at 2:21 PM on September 17 [1 favorite]

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Never met her, even though she's just up the road, but all my friends in local journalism here in Fargo have been eulogizing her.
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:24 PM on September 17 [2 favorites]

From someone with a weakness for Olive Garden lasagna¡­

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posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:03 PM on September 17

I wonder what she would think of her updated bio blurb on the Grand Forks Herald website: "Marilyn Hagerty was a lifelong newspaperwoman and worked as a Herald reporter and columnist for nearly 70 years. She became nationally famour [sic] for her work as a food critic."
posted by at by at 4:09 PM on September 17 [1 favorite]

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posted by jonp72 at 4:33 PM on September 17

Anthony Bourdain stepped in to defend her when her original review went viral, and then helped her publish a compilation of her reviews, a book for which he wrote the foreword.

Jonathan Kite's TikTok channel has a recurring bit where he does Anthony Bourdain reviewing American chain restaurants. Here's Anthony Bourdain reviewing the Olive Garden.
posted by jonp72 at 4:38 PM on September 17

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posted by Frayed Knot at 4:54 PM on September 17

Honestly, I've only eaten at Olive Garden maybe... Twice in my life? Three times? But it was perfectly respectable pasta when I did. Actually better than the meal I ate at one of the stalwarts of Baltimore's Little Italy, which had some really sad linguine. Nothing like the fabulous Italian meals I've had over the years, obviously, but I wouldn't shriek or flail if that is where someone wanted to go.
posted by tavella at 5:02 PM on September 17

I think I¡¯ve been to Olive Garden twice in my life. I¡¯d say it¡¯s worse Italian food than you¡¯d get at a random neighborhood place in the northeast, but it¡¯s certainly palatable and they do a clever job with letting people feel like they went out to a nice, multi-course dinner with wine and also like they got a bargain and leftovers for tomorrow.

They do a thing where a server comes with a block of cheese and grates it for you until you say stop. My friend, who was pregnant at the time, wanted a lot of cheese on her pasta, and at some point the server appeared to start crying and walked away mid-grind.

A manager came by and explained that the server, an older lady, had arthritis and the grinding motion was very painful for her. Which raised a real question about why they didn¡¯t give her the obvious accommodation of having someone else grind for her tables.

But I think the unlimited cheese, and salad, and breadsticks are part of their appeal and maybe she¡¯d lose tips if she didn¡¯t personally do the grinding.
posted by smelendez at 5:17 PM on September 17 [3 favorites]

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posted by MexicanYenta at 6:43 PM on September 17

I remember the review that went viral. What a long career and a life.
posted by fridgebuzz at 12:32 AM on September 18

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posted by the sobsister at 8:06 AM on September 18

*****
posted by yellowcandy at 12:11 PM on September 18

Here is the original review, the link in the previous FPP was dead.
posted by panhopticon at 2:23 PM on September 18

In grad School, Olive Garden along with Subway and Taco Bell were godsent for a vegetarian poor like me.

We used to go as a group on Friday nights, load up on the unlimited soup/salad and breadsticks for dinner; and I'd pack and take my Eggplant Parmesan entree home for lunch the next day.

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posted by indianbadger1 at 2:31 PM on September 18 [1 favorite]

As a vegan, Olive Garden is a reasonable place for me to go to when I visit my friends in southern Ohio, where vegan options are few and far between (with a big Fuck You to Applebees, who assured me they could provide a salad that was just salad veg, and then put cheese and bacon all over it).

But at Olive Garden, where we generally have the lunchtime soup, salad and breadsticks menu, I've explained my dietary preferences, and they prepare me an individual (and very large) salad bowl with no parmesan, the minestrone soup is vegan, as are the breadsticks (which are amazingly delicious and addictive).

Olive Garden wouldn't be my choice for an evening dining experience if I wanted Italian food, but it's kept this vegan fed and happy over several lunchtimes when the only other restaurants in the area would have me cobbling a meal together from side dishes.
posted by essexjan at 2:15 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

Jesus effing heck, that Olive Garden review was not what I was expecting. I know enough people from the Upper Midwest to recognize an absolutely scathing rant when I read one.

I¡¯m born and raised in the Upper Midwest and my read was ¡°gee, was this written by Olive Garden¡¯s P. R. flacks?¡± I¡¯d like to have read more of her reviews to see what her usual writing voice sounded like, but the ¡°read more of her reviews¡± link was 404-ed.

I suspect your reading of the review may be better than mine, maybe you are better tuned to detect sarcasm. But I guarantee 90 percent of her readers thought she loved the place.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 6:36 AM on September 19

You can search the newspaper's site for her name and then pick Restaurants and Bars in the tag section,
which gives you this list.
posted by soelo at 8:00 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

It's all so pure.

Digging deeper, she's tough, but fair:

With the pluses, there also are a few minuses. The women's restroom is sparkling white and clean, but it would be more inviting with some decorative touches such as a picture or maybe a plant.

posted by mazola at 2:36 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

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