Olive Garden’s Disgrace: Wouldn’t Allow American Flag Display, Said It Would “Disrupt Dining Experience”
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 14, 2011
Too little, too late: Olive Garden apologizes for banning American flag in restaurant
My family and millions of other American families have precious few dollars these days to use for eating out. Dining away from home is a luxury. So, we’re careful when choosing a restaurant.
Boycott Time: Olive Garden is now on my “Never Will I Eat There Again” list. Yes, they’ve rescinded and apologized for their appalling decision to not let an 80-year-old woman use the American flag in a display for a Kiwanas Club event in Alabama last month, but that was only after much public outcry.
Reality check — there are plenty of other restaurants that are struggling in this Obama economy that would be proud to display our flag during a banquet event. Treating this nation’s flag as a “disturbance” to others’ dining experience is cowardice and disgraceful, and it smacks loudly of anti-patriotism.
When the Kiwanas Club banquet led with the Pledge of Allegiance, chapter president Marti Warren asked the club attendees to close their eyes so that they could picture the flag waving in the wind. That’s just plain sad.
If the restaurant is so concerned about other patrons in the restaurant being “disturbed,” why on Earth do they book large, boisterous banquet events there? Selective and hypocritical. If an Islamic group had booked a banquet event at Olive Garden, I have my doubts that they would have been refused permission to hang a flag.
The owner of Olive Garden, Darden Restaurants, also owns Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, and The Capital Grille.
So, Olive Garden and its brother and sister restaurants, my family says arrivederci, ciao, and addio per sempre.
From The Blaze, Olive Garden: American Flag Display Would ‘Disrupt the Dining Experience’:
80-year-old Marti Warren thought she was doing a good thing a little over a month ago when she booked a local Olive Garden restaurant in Oxford, Alabama, to host a Kiwanis club awards banquet. The chapter president got a rude awakening the night of the gathering, however, when restaurant staff refused to allow her to bring an American flag inside the restaurant.
Warren, who lived through World War II and was later part of her local desegregation movement, said, “This is not my country. This is not my country I grew up with.”
The justly outraged Warren told WBRC-TV, “I was so angry. I felt like I had been slapped in the face”.
From Fox News, Olive Garden Apologizes After Staff Refuses to Let Patron Display American Flag:
Controversy over an Alabama Olive Garden’s refusal to allow a patron to enter the restaurant with an American flag reportedly has prompted the restaurant chain to issue a personal apology from its vice president.
The patron, 80-year-old Marti Warren, told MyFoxAl.com she was outraged after being told she could not bring the flag into the restaurant to attend a Kiwanis Club award banquet.
“This is not my country. This is not my country I grew up with,” Warren said, adding that she and the club then contacted Olive Garden’s parent company, Darden restaurants.
Olive Garden has issued public statements apologizing, including on its Facebook page.
“We are very sorry for any misunderstanding about this issue,” the Facebook post reads. “We do not have a policy at Olive Garden concerning bringing the American flag into our restaurants. Some members of our team were misinformed about company policy by our corporate office. As a company, we take responsibility for that and we regret it. …
“Like all Americans we have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the American flag and everything it symbolizes, and we welcome anyone who wishes to bring the flag into our restaurants. In fact, we periodically provide American flag collar pins to our employees to wear while serving guests.”
Warren, who said the denial felt as though she “had been slapped in the face,” also reportedly was told she couldn’t bring the Golden K Kiwanis club’s banner into the dining room. She said she would have taken the group somewhere else if she had know this would happen.
The club reportedly said the Pledge of Allegiance under Warren’s guidance with their eyes closed so that they could picture the flag waving in the wind.
From WDBO News, Olive Garden feels heat from 80-year-old woman:
It looks like an 80-year-old Alabama woman has taken on a Fortune 500 company and won.
Marti Warren, a Kiwanis Club member who says the group wasn’t allowed to bring an American flag into an Olive Garden restaurant in Oxford, Alabama, expects to get a personal apology from a top executive with the company.
After a report on WDBO Wednesday, Warren says that the company vice president contacted her Wednesday and will be going to Alabama to personally apologize to her and members of the Golden K Kiwanis Club.
Officials with Olive Garden and Orlando-based Darden restaurants said in a statement that they’re sorry if the decision regarding the flag caused any concern.
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