Olive Garden: One Breadstick Per Person Policy?

One bread stick per person? You have got to be kidding me!

I love Olive Garden bread sticks and couldn't believe it when I read it, but it's true. Advisors to the Olive Garden Restaurant Chain said that the restaurant should only should serve one bread stick per customer, plus an one extra per table

ABC News reports, that remark is part of a response by the chain's parent company, Darden Restaurants Inc., to a nearly 300-page criticism released by hedge fund Starboard Value last week. Starboard took Olive Garden and its management to task for a litany of issues, including its liberal distribution of breadsticks, its failure to salt the water used to boil its pasta and even the length of the asparagus it serves.

Are you serious? This is what the consultants want: Less Bread sticks. Now If you are like me, you love to fill up on bread sticks and the all you can eat bread sticks is one of the main reasons I eat at Olive Garden

I have to pay credit to the management of Olive Garden who are staunchly defending their practice of giving customers as many breads ticks as they want, saying the policy conveys "Italian generosity."

ABC New reports:
As for its bread sticks, Starboard said last week that Olive Garden was being wasteful because servers weren't sticking to the policy of providing one breadstick per customer, plus an extra for the table. The investor said servers lacked "training and discipline" and were bringing out too many breadsticks at a time, which also led to cold breadsticks. Starboard noted that it wasn't calling for Olive Garden to stop giving away unlimited breadsticks, but simply exercise more control in how they're distributed.

 

My Opinion: These consultants are idiots! 

Starboard, the consulting firm,  also said servers were overfilling salad bowls and using too much dressing, which it said drives up costs.

The good news, Olive garden issued a statement today saying:

"Olive Garden's salad and bread sticks have been an icon of brand equity since 1982." The company didn't say whether it would change the way salad and breadsticks are brought out, however.

Hope remains for all you can eat Olive Garden bread sticks