Managing the three-floor Olive Garden restaurant at 2 Times Square in Manhattan, which offers seatings until 2 AM and often has lines two hours long, is no easy task. You must provide comfort food to tourists and homesick New Yorkers alike, and help all visitors looking for a break from the hectic city of strangers outside feel like they are, at least for an hour or so, “family.”
In an epic Q&A, Bay Area writer Joe Wadlington offers insights, courtesy of a former general manager, into just how hard running a huge and popular outpost of an iconic restaurant can be.
Wadlington begins, “I went on a date last night and the guy meekly shared that he used to be THE GENERAL MANAGER…