Has anyone heard that Olive Garden is looking to re-enter the Canadian market in a big way?
I'm pretty sure there are Olive Gardens in Alberta.
Alberta loves shit fake Italian food.
To answer these, there is a Canadian website,
www.olivegarden.ca
The chain never folded its Western Canada operations, only Ontario.
They have a single location in Vancouver, 2 in Winnipeg, a few in Edmonton and Calgary and are building new locations (entering/reentering) Regina and Saskatoon.
I have not heard of them returning to the Ontario market.
They may be, I just don't know.
Having said that, I'm not quite sure what they bungled the last time, most of their Toronto locations had very high traffic.
Yet, somehow they were making too low a margin to justify remaining open.
I've heard many theories over the years, but none that resonated with me, as I fail to understand how you can keep people waiting 30m+ for a table on a Fri/Sat and not make money, unless you
don't know how to price, bungled your supply chain or systematically grossly over paid for your real estate; but I digress.
Worth noting is that if Olive Garden returns, whether one liked it the first time or not.........what comes back would not be the same.
Lest, I misunderstand, I believe OG has shifted to a greater proportion of frozen, heat and serve food than when it was last here.
FWIW, the pasta, from my pov was never particularly good, though I've had worse........but the Pasta Fagiole was actually quite passable, and there Soup, Salad and Breadsticks was a decent healthy-ish lunch at a low price.
Though one did have to tolerate that unbearable kitsch decor..........
Nothing I crave; but if they came back that would be fine, they're not going to put any decent Italian place out of business.........if they suck some money out Boston Pizza or East Side Mario's no harm done.
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