re: Olive Garden

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I always enjoy the extreme polarization that chain restaurants seem to cause

The purpose of chain restaurants is to present food that will be at least somewhat palatable to the widest swath of the population possible for the lowest price possible. In 2023, that means primarily serving frozen food for not exactly cheap prices. With that said, they are great at serving two purposes: first, if every dollar truly matters to you, then it gives you the least expensive option for dining out. Second, in some smaller towns, it’s the only option, as the economies of scale are the only thing that makes it work.

But for those of us who live in cities with more options, there’s just not much reason to go to places like OG. I just googled a few different menus online for the price on the random staple of chicken parm, and the price of OG compared to a couple of other “local” places in BR were within a couple of dollars of one another. So for me, it’s worth a couple of bucks to have fresher food and support a local business. But I complete get why plenty of people fall on the other side of that equation.

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True. Once we were traveling and were spending the night in this small town, I recognized it as the city where my niece went to college, so I called her to ask for a recommendation. I told her all I had seen so far was the Applebees, she said that's the best place in town. Ugh.