By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Scene Writer on Mar 14, 2012, at 3:17 PM Updated on 3/14 at 3:17 PM
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I can’t remember the last time I ate at an Olive Garden restaurant, but I believe every word Marilyn Hagerty wrote about her visit to the Grand Forks, N.D., franchise.
Mrs. Hagerty’s very positive review of a restaurant that is usually appears in popular culture served with a heaping helping of snark has become quite the sensation, thanks to Internet.
An article by Tiffany Hsu in the March 14 Los Angeles Times states that: “Her review is being used to illustrate concepts ranging from bicoastal elitism, generational appreciation of food, the role of niceness in fame and the decline of good manners in reviewing.
“Her words (shared more than 26,000 times on Facebook) are now being dissected with a scrutiny usually reserved for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,” Hsu writes. “Is her intense focus on the Olive Garden’s décor instead of on the quality of the dishes actually a subtle slam on the chain? Is she at the forefront of a new food movement that decries gastronomic overthinking (see Mary Risley’s viral Thanksgiving video in which she exhorts viewers to ‘just put the [expletive] turkey in the oven’)?”
To me, it’s none of those things. It’s just an example of a dedicated journalist doing her job.
Mrs. Hagerty, at age 85, retired from the Grand Forks Herald about 20 years, but as a freelancer she continues to write five daily columns for the paper – everything from local history to human interest, as well as her restaurant column that appears on Wednesdays.
And when you are writing about places to eat in a town that does not have as fecund and fungible a food scene as, say, New York or Los Angeles, well, you write about what you have.
As the restaurant critics in Tulsa to do, back in the days when Tulsa was a two-newspaper town and the retail-and-restaurant world that is the 71st Street corridor pretty much ended at the far east edge of the Woodland Hills Mall parking lot.
In fact, around the turn of the 1990s, one of the most noted additions to the city’s culinary culture was the arrival of Luby’s Cafeteria. Three of them, in fact – one in the Fontana Shopping Center at 51st Street and Memorial Drive, another near 31st Street and Garnett Road, and the only one still standing, at the intersection of 71st Street and Riverside Drive.
The World’s reviewer, Suzanne Holloway, assessed the Fontana facility in 1989 this way: “Luby's provides a satisfying meal of old-fashioned American food that is appealing to any age.”
Holloway understood that places like Luby’s appeal both to senior citizens and young families because both groups are looking for “moderate prices without tipping, big servings that can be shared, quick service, a variety of
foods that fit some special diets and a comfortable setting.”
She had praise for the chicken and fish dishes she tried, and found most of the side dishes acceptable: “Green beans (82 cents) have delicious southern seasonings. No nouvelle crisp vegetables here. They've been cooked longer
for more flavor. Mashed potatoes (79 cents) and cream gravy are tasty and corn (79 cents) is fresh and good.”
The Tribune’s restaurant writer was quite a bit more effusive in praise of the 71st & Riverside location, giving the place a five-star rating – which, according to the criteria listed meant she considerd Luby’s “Superior.”
“There were so many choices once I reached the serving line that I froze and created quite a jam,” wrote Connie Cronley. “What did they expect? There were 18 salads to choose from, 10 kinds of bread and almost two dozen desserts.”
Cronley wrote that “All the food I sampled seemed fresh and appetizing. Portions were large and the presentation was appealing....My favorite was the chicken-fried steak, almost fork-tender and so big it filled a platter.”
The thing is, while I believe every word Mrs. Hagerty and my two former colleagues wrote about these restaurants, and believe they were all absolutely sincere in their evaluations, I don’t plan on visiting a Luby’s or an Olive Garden any time soon. If I need large platters of mass-produced victuals, well, these days there are plenty of places around town to find such fare.
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