No, We're Not That Family (Italian-Americans mad at Olive Garden)

Opnionjournal ^ | July 26, 2002 | Victorino Matus

[stands2reason]

Italian-Americans have a problem, and it's not "The Sopranos."

Italian-Americans are speaking out. They are complaining about a stereotype they just can't stand. One that they find inaccurate and misleading. One that is constantly shown on television, much to their disgust. They are unhappy. They are at their wit's end. They are fed up.

[Sir Gawain]

ping

[goodieD]

I love the old joke about the difference between Chinese and Jewish food... with Chinese food you eat and you're hungry an hour later...with Jewish food you eat, and you're not hungry for days..

[Oztrich Boy]

Yeah I'm not Italian, but I still got rights.
Can I complain about Outback Steakhouse?

[JerseyHighlander]

Another Jersey Freeper, who while driving around Florida for a summer got the craving for Italian, and to this day, any mention of OG makes me chuckle. The Red Lobster - Olive Garden connection makes it clearer, and the "When you're here, you're family" campaign will forever keep me out of OG. There are three memories I have of Olive Garden, one there wasn't a single piece of parmesan in the OG, the second was the parm I ordered came out with the mozz unmelted, the third being more plastic shrubs in the section dividers then I'd ever seen before, so much so they were impossible to eat with because they came over the tables. I had enough Sunday meals with my Italian family over the years as to not have to also pay for the headaches.

Which would cause Tony Soprano to lose more face? Getting caught dumping a body off the Jersey Shore, or being found by papparazzi at an Olive Garden?

[Tired of Taxes]

quite the change of pace for a WASP from Newport Beach!

I'll bet it was. Long, long ago, I used to date a WASP, too, and those quiet family dinners where everyone sits around and actually just eats and talks to each other politely was a SHOCK for me. =)

[Republican Wildcat]

Well, they have great salads...

[JerseyHighlander]

Swiss cheese, no tomato sauce. ...In Wisconsin

My Palermo-born grandfather remarries a woman from London Ontario. She has 2 kids from a previous marriage whom she brings to Long Island. The first time they go for pizza, the kids didn't know what it was and thought the cheese was melted marshmallows. This story has been handed down for 40 years whenever someone in the family would complain about an Italian restuarant meal in front of my grandfather. Then the during the Depression stories about how bad the food was would start. Then the "you can't get real Italian west of the Hudson...Anything west of the Hudson is camping...". At no time did that conversation bear any resemblance to the Olive Garden commercials.

[dirtboy]

And the food is wretched.

Guess what? My former girlfriend was half Sicilian. But did her family shun Olive Garden? Heck no, they went there for every occasion, because the food was cheap. I'm not quite sure what the lesson is here, but I would venture it is that ... if you sell it cheap enought, some folks will come...

[Gabz]

The commercials are stupid....no doubt about that.

As for the food - I do like the soups - but this Irish kid from Brooklyn cooks better Italian than the Olive Garden, and for a whole lot cheaper.

To be honest, the only time I ever go there is if someone else is paying the bill. I may be in Dover, Delaware - but there are far better Italian restaurants than that in this town.

[Pure Country]

Haggis, now that is a culinary delight. When we go to a Burn's dinner, my husband will eat any haggis that anyone doesn't want. I can hardly stand to look at it. Kind of feel the same way about meat pies. And while in Scotland, the blood pudding for breakfast about did me in and then they serve it with a side of haggis. Words cannot describe.....

[Sally II]

They make their mazzarella cheese out of water buffalo milk in Italy? I wonder if that tastes just like the yak cheese I had in Nepal. That was some strange stuff. I remember thinking it tasted interesting, kind of good, at first. But after just a day of having yak cheese in my food and yak milk in my coffee I got sick of that sooo fast.

[CARepubGal]

Woody Allen? The ADL is more whacked than I first thought. Fuggedaboutit. OG is bland and icky. I really like the locally owned places. It is the Starbucks of restaurants: nothing spectacular but you know what you are walking into.

[Texas Mom]

live in NJ and I'm an Italian-American and I don't know a signle wop who frequents the Olive Garden. My friends who aren't Italian love to go there, but the food is so bland and mediocre it isn't funny.

I have also noticed not many Orientals eating in Oriental restaurants or Mexicans in Mexican restaurants either.

The only thing I really like at Olive Gardens is the Salad and bread.

[Marie Antoinette]

You *have* to tell me where the Poles are in St. Louis, because I haven't found a decent Kielbasa since I moved to Missouri (10 years ago!). If I want any, I have to freeze it and bring it back from my ma's in Chicago.

[stands2reason]

I knew it! :-) Oh well, I guess it's still N.O. for me....

[stands2reason]

Why? Are you Strine?

[F16Fighter]

"Oh, he [Tony Danza] is [represents 'Italian America'], more than you know. Like I said, I've been to Staten Island. Hell, lil' southern ole me has even been to that San Genero street thing in Brooklyn. Nothin' but a bunch of jogging suit wearing, gold chain dangling, sausage sandwich eating, guidos.

No offense. That's just what I saw. I calls 'em like I sees 'em."

No offense taken you SOB ;-) (Aye -- ain't that the way friends tawk in New Yawk Italian nay-bah-hoods??)

Actually, having grown up in northern NJ, those Tony Danza/Soprano stereo-typical Italians from some of the north Jersey pockets I.A.s are dead on, but these days they exist only in the major "butta-bing" areas like Nork (Newark), Belleville, Brooklyn, and yeah -- S.I. Unfortunately, some of dem "cavones" even migrated down here to the Jersey Shore...

BTW, if anyone wants to see or listen to a hilarious take on Italian-Americans, check out comedian Dom Irrira.

[Sir_Ed]

Hah hah hah!! I can well imagine! Augusta's family is the quintessential Italian family...if I walk into the cuccina while Aunt Marie is cooking, she starts yelling "geddoudda my kitchen!!!" and the wait is ALWAYS worth it, but I do, indeed, get out of her kitchen!

Ed

[southern rock]

I got yer cavones right here

[ivanhoe116]

Right! Don't miss it and I envy your first visit.