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Olive Garden Is Too Expensive If You're Making Less Than $75K

Even Olive Garden is becoming increasingly too expensive for many Americans.

The casual family restaurant chain that offers an "authentic" version of Italian food has seen fewer middle- and lower-income diners coming through its doors, the Olive Garden's parent Darden said in its latest quarterly report.

"We're clearly seeing consumer behavior shifts," Darden CEO Rick Cardenas. "The lower-income consumer does appear to be pulling back."

Inflation-battered restaurant-goers who earn less than $75,000 are particular staying away from Olive Garden, and households that earn $50,000 are shunning the company's fine-dining brands, according to Cardenas.

The hospitality conglomerate's higher-end franchises include Longhorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen and Ruth's Chris Steak House.

On the bright side, Darden said there was in increase in transactions from diners who boast incomes of higher than $150,000 in the third quarter, which ended Feb. 25.

Olive Garden is becoming increasingly out of reach for the lower-income consumer, according to the company's CEO. Brett – stock.Adobe.Com Last year, Olive Garden stopped offering its free pasta refills due to high levels of inflation. Olive Garden

Last year, Darden said it had kept price increases at below inflation, but also quietly axed popular promotions like free pasta refills at Olive Garden.

Olive Garden still offers its "never-ending first course" — soup, salad and breadsticks — but the chain started to cut discounting during the pandemic.

Cardenas said that Darden will place an emphasis on low staff turnover to cut down on training costs in in the midst of a tough economic environment where consumers are pulling back.

"We believe that operators can deliver on their brand promise with value and can continue to appeal consumers despite economic challenges," Cardenas said.

Olive Garden's parent company Darden Restaurants also owns and operates Longhorn Steakhouse. Christopher Sadowski

"That's what we're going to continue to focus on doing. I remain confident that we're well positioned and prepared for whatever we have to deal with."

Darden, a publicly traded company whose shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, was trading flat at around $163 per share as of Wednesday afternoon.

The company owns 2,022 restaurants, including 917 Olive Gardens, 572 Longhorn Steakhouses, 181 Cheddar's Scratch Kitchens, and 64 Capital Grilles.

Earlier this year, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski acknowledged that his fast food chain was growing increasingly out of reach for low-income diners.

McDonald's customers have reported significantly higher menu prices in restaurants in wealthy parts of Connecticut, where a Big Mac meal costs $18.

McDonald's, Chipotle and other restaurant chains have warned they may be forced to hike prices even further in California, where a new $20-an-hour minimum wage law has taken effect.

Additional Reporting by Lisa Fickenscher

Olive Garden

Olive Garden is oft-maligned for serving up processed dishes masquerading as traditional Italian food, but that hasn't stopped the sit-down restaurant chain from establishing a whopping 1,816 locations across the United States.

That's a fairly remarkable feat, considering that the first Olive Garden was founded in Orlando, Florida in 1982 and only took two decades to become the nation's leading franchise in the Italian casual dining space.

If there appears to be a "formulaic" approach to the spot's offerings, it's probably because the chain is owned by Darden Restaurants, which has created several other popular casual dining franchises like Longhorn Steakhouse, Eddie V's, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, Red Lobster, and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Given Olive Garden's popularity and offerings of relatively low-cost sit-down menu options like unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks for $11.99 (with prices varying by location and time of day) it's no wonder so many folks are posting about their Olive Garden experiences online, both sitting at and serving tables.

Frazer Olive Garden To Pay $30,000 To Settle Disability Discrimination Claim

The parent company of the Olive Garden at the Pittsburgh Mills complex in Frazer will pay $30,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged the restaurant's management discriminated against a man by not hiring him because of his disability.

GMRI, operator of the Olive Garden at Pittsburgh Mills, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) opted to settle the federal lawsuit by consent decree before any findings concerning its claims. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh approved the decree Tuesday.

According to the lawsuit, the restaurant's general manager interviewed a man with a disability for a busboy job in September 2021. The lawsuit alleged that during the interview, the manager asked questions related to the applicant's disability such as what was "wrong with" him and how "bad" his disability was.

The lawsuit alleged the manager saw the man using a cane and ended the interview, and chose not to hire him because of the information obtained from the allegedly illegal questions about his disability.

Although the assistant manager recommended the defendant be hired, Olive Garden instead hired two people for similar jobs in November 2021, the EEOC said.

A spokeswoman for Darden Restaurants, parent company of GMRI, didn't return a message seeking comment Wednesday.

The EEOC said it tried to avoid the lawsuit by entering into a prelitigation settlement through conciliation, but Olive Garden declined.

In addition to the payout, the consent decree prohibits Olive Garden from engaging in disability discrimination, conducting disability-related inquiries or medical examination of job applicants or taking employment actions based on information obtained through such inquiries, the EEOC said.

Olive Garden must provide mandatory ADA training to the general manager and other personnel at its Frazer location. The restaurant also must report various information to the EEOC concerning its employment practices at the site.

Kellen Stepler is a TribLive reporter covering the Allegheny Valley and Burrell school districts and surrounding areas. He joined the Trib in April 2023. He can be reached at kstepler@triblive.Com.

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