The Grand Forks Herald is the second largest newspaper in North Dakota.

It's the paperware in 2012, then 86-year-old colonist and informal food critic, Marilyn

Haggertey, published a glowing review of a newly opened franchise of the world's biggest

Italian restaurant chain.

Haggertey's rave went viral for its refreshing absence of irony in praising one of America's

most well-known eateries, one often derided by coastal elites for its inauthenticity.

The restaurant traces its origins back to Red Lobster founder Bill Darden, whose Darden

restaurant's group was purchased by a massive process food conglomerate General Mills in

the late 1970s.

The company subsequently expanded its portfolio in 1982 by opening the first branch of a

sit-down Italian concept in Orlando, Florida.

It would become Darden's fastest-growing chain of all time, expanding nationwide in the

back of its menu of Italian American favorites, along with its value-conscious offering of unlimited

soup salad and breadsticks.

Now with over 800 locations that are reported $3 billion in sales, its financial dominance

of the sit-down Italian sector is unquestionable, but where Haggertey's accolades earned, when

you're here, are you really family?

This week on Doe Boys, the Olive Garden.

Welcome to Doe Boys, the podcast about chain restaurants.

I'm Nick Wiger alongside my co-host, the Spoon Man Mike Mitchell.

How you doing, Mitch?

Good, nice and true.

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