“The OG yearning was best expressed by an anxious woman in a big white car who stopped this reporter as he was leaving the new restaurant last week. She rolled down her window and asked if it was open, then looked heartbroken when told that it wasn’t, that the parking lot was simply filled with the vehicles of Olive Garden staff members in training. “I’ve been watching it and marking my calendar until Dec. 11,” she said, her brief hopes for an early Italian dinner quashed.
That’s the reaction that excites general manager Jason Hagarty, 31, an Omaha native and bachelor with eight years of Olive Garden experience, most recently as general manager in Dubuque.
“I’m excited,” he said, noting the reaction of people in public when they find out who he is. “I think it’s going to be a good marriage — us and Sioux City. This is my seventh Olive Garden, and this is the one I’m most excited about.”
One reason for his excitement is the ample parking available, more than at any other Olive Garden where he has worked, he said. It includes shared parking with adjacent businesses. The restaurant is just east of Gunderson’s Jewelers.”