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Sanity Restored: Grand Forks Food Critic Actually Hated "Impressive" Olive Garden
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 9, 2012
Modified Mar 9, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 9, 2012
Modified Mar 9, 2012
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Marilyn Hagerty's earnest, Hemingway-esque review of the long-awaited Olive Garden in Grand Forks, North Dakota caused a viral aurora borealis to occur this week. Sick and tired of Grand Forks food snobs' stranglehold over the industry, we compared our three NYC-area Olive Gardens to Hagerty's "beautiful" one...and found that ours were seriously lacking. But it turns out that Hagerty wasn't all that impressed with hers either: "By the way, her readers will recognize that as a fairly negative review since she spent a lot more time on the ambience than the food," said a former Grand Forks Herald editor.
Of course, re-reading her piece now, it all makes so much sense—she REJECTED the raspberry lemonade! Yes, she said she'd come back on a hot summer day to try it, but for an exceedingly sincere and sweet 86-year-old lady, that's as cold as it gets. Of course, poor Olive Garden didn't realize how scathing her review really was either: "We're glad for the attention. Business is great, we love the review," spokeswoman Heidi Schauer told us.
Then again, why shouldn't they be glad: the original review has accumulated almost 300K in views over two days. Olive Garden is trending all over the country because of posts on Gawker, Boing Boing, Wall Street Journal, and countless others. And Hagerty's story has empowered closeted Olive Garden aficionados to come out: "I'm going to level with you: I love the Olive Garden. LOVE it. I love the Tuscany-by-way-of-Atlanta decor, I love their horrible Italian portmanteaus, I love that you can buy their unpalatable wine by the jug...I love that their corruption of lasagna is so far beyond the pale that it's borderline transgressive."
As for Hagerty, she's not letting all the attention go to her head. "I've been writing the Eatbeat for 30 or 40 years. Some people don't like it, some people do like it, blah blah blah," she told the Village Voice. Although her daughter has encouraged her to read the comments online, she doesn't have the time: “I told her I’m working on my Sunday column and I’m going to play bridge this afternoon, so I don’t have time to read all this crap.” Well of course she doesn't need their validation—she was already a celebrity in Grand Forks way before this: "Marilyn has been reviewing restaurants for the Herald for decades," said her former editor. "She also writes a sort of celebrity column and has a sewage lift station named for her, as does Dave Barry."
Tagged
grand forks
marilyn hagerty
north dakota
olive garden
reviews
sanity
taste buds
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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