Olive Garden Manager Times Square Thread

April 20, 2017 1:07 PM EDT

Olive Garden, destination for never ending pasta passes, $400 NYE tickets and carbs in all forms, is primarily known for its notorious unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks deal. But what would happen if Olive Garden didn’t have an endless supply of breadsticks to feed their hungry hordes?

Thanks to the intrepid journalism of Twitter user Joe Wadlington, who used a first date with the former general manager of the Olive Garden in Times Square to find out the deepest, darkest secrets of the cult chain restaurant, we know now that Olive Garden running out of breadsticks has not only happened, but is arguably more stressful than a knife fight.

In a series of tweets, Wadlington disclosed all of the pertinent information we ever needed to know about life, love and Olive Garden.

On how it began:

I went on a date last night and the guy meekly shared that he used to be THE GENERAL MANAGER FOR THE TIMES SQUARE OLIVE GARDEN.

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

On whether or not Olive Garden has ever really run out of breadsticks:

Q Did y'all ever run out of breadsticks? If so what happened?
A Yes. Twice. Worst shifts of my life. People were angry, kept telling us "no"

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

"They kept saying, 'OLIVE GARDEN DOESNT DO THAT, our Olive Garden, in Ohio, doesn't do that."

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

On the most popular dish:

Q: What was the most popular dish?
A: The tour of Italy
Q: What?
A: It's a plate of lasagna, a chicken parmesan, & one fettuccine alfredo

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

On the casual knife fight he says he witnessed at the restaurant that was less stressful than running out of breadsticks:

Q: What's the weirdest thing that ever happened?
A: Oh, there was a knife fight.
Q: Tell me everything.
A: Two women. They came together.

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

Q: Steak knives? Like the knives from the table or BYOK?
A: From the table. So, it started out as a fist fight and the other manger pulled

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

them apart and put one in the elevator going down to the 1st floor. They were on the third floor. The 2nd woman broke away and ran down the

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

Stairs. She stopped the elevator on the 2nd floor and grabbed a knife off someone's table.
A: someone else's knife?!
Q: yes

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

Q: So only one woman had a knife.
A: The other woman picked up a knife off a different table. So the other manager, he was a huge guy, 6'6"

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

ran down there and pulled them apart again. They were on the first floor at this point. And he threw them out into the street. So they could

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

deal with it out there.
Q: Did they still have the knives?
A: No, he took them.
Q: Did he give them breadsticks?
A: What? No.
Q: Sorry.

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

A: No.
Q: Wait. You said the shifts where you ran out of breadsticks were the worst. Worse than the shift with a knife fight?

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

A: You may be surprised, but yes, Olive Garden running out of breadsticks is worse than a knife fight.
Q: No, I totally get it.

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017

On how it ended:

Reader, I married him. 💐

— Joe Wadlington (@JoeWadlington) April 19, 2017