Interesting. Not sure who to award the point to, here.
Olive Garden has a food truck now, which is not a surprise.
They’re handing out “breadstick sandwiches” which sound diabolically good in a low-brow sort of way. I’m thinking State Fair fare. So far, so good, OG.
Oh, but wait. They parked their suburban brand in an authentic Italian neighborhood in Boston. And boy, are those guys not-happy. George Mendoza, one of the neighborhood restaurant owners, told Boston.com, “There is nothing authentically Italian about Olive Garden. It’s an insult to everyone in the North End selling Italian food for more than 100 years.” Other people said even less nice stuff.
Oops, Olive Garden. Those aren’t your typical customers, there, those people seeking authentic Italian food instead of those people out by the mall tired and hungry from being suburbanites.
But now it gets interesting.
As reported by Grub Street, “Going off on a Twitter rant, Boston Globe restaurant critic Devra First cautions that while meatball breadstick sandwiches aren’t at all authentic, you can pretty much say the same about a lot of North End food.” Here is that rant:
I think Olive Garden loses a point by misjudging the reaction of local Italian restaurants to its mobile presence; but then I think those glass-house-rock-throwers get a demerit also. So the score, by my calculations, is tied.
Remember: people are going to use everything about you to make a judgment. (It’s in the book.)