#olive-garden

#olive-garden

Olive Garden's side dishes usually take a backseat to the main meals, and when you consider that most entrées come with a certain side by default, customers are even less likely to peruse that section of the menu. But if do you decide to take a look, you'll discover something exciting: You can order three of the chain's meatballs as a side dish for around $4. The only catch is that when ordered to-go, the dish might be missing a rather crucial component: The sauce.

In the 40+ years since its birth in Orlando, Florida, Olive Garden has not only expanded to over 900 locations, but the restaurant has also created a massive footprint in pop culture, appearing in sketches on Saturday Night Live, tongue-in-cheek punk songs, and an extended bit where Jimmy Fallon ended up owning the rights to the catchphrase "When you're here, you're family."

One thing you need to know before going to Olive Garden for the first time is that all of its desserts are shipped to stores frozen, then defrosted or heated before serving. This may not sound enticing, but many of the desserts don't suffer from this treatment - as long as they're reheated the right way. Unfortunately, the restaurant's tiramisu is served very inconsistently.

She was everywhere and she loved it and it was a wonderful experience, although she had to ask my brother what does it mean if you go viral. She didn't know that," Gail Hagerty said. "She used to say that if you were going to have 15 minutes of fame and if you were 86, you had to do it soon. You couldn't wait.

Olive Garden's mints are distinct with custom branding, featuring a green top and brown bottom, differentiating them from standard Andes mints which have all-brown packaging.

The unlimited breadsticks were originally adopted to keep customers busy while waiting for their meals due to unexpected delays in the kitchen.

The original look of Olive Garden was a Tuscan-inspired Italian garden, complete with murals of the Italian countryside and features like table umbrellas and hanging plants.

Marilyn Hagerty wrote an article praising Olive Garden, leading to a viral backlash filled with condescension, until Anthony Bourdain defended her perspective on social media.