Surprises Abound

Had a pretty interesting experience today.  I received a surprise from my much loved friend, Carolyn Curtis, for my birthday.  She sent a gift certificate for Darden Restaurant Group - parent company of a wide range of establishments from Capital Grill to Red Lobster.  I know!  I was surprised it was the same company too.

Her instructions said to use it to just celebrate.  Well, Dave and I decided that now was as good a time as any to celebrate so we decided to take advantage of the all you can eat soup and salad offered at Olive Garden.  We had an exceptionally busy morning, few groceries and a hankering for soup.

As we pulled up to park, we were very surprised to see an elderly gentleman laying on the ground in the parking lot; his walker cast to the side and a small group of restaurant staff attending to him.  Because Dave has some experience in first aid, he hopped out to help and covered the gentleman with a jacket so that he wouldn't go into shock.

When we heard the ambulance approach and saw that the man was being well attended, we went into the restaurant and had our lunch.  We were again surprised, this time very pleasantly, with the meal.  We're sort of food snobs.  We're big endorsers of slow food, farm to table, organic and locavore movements.  Both of us were pretty happy with our meals - I had some ravioli in marinara sauce and Dave had a pasta and vegetable dish that he really enjoyed.

Sometimes a chain restaurant is pretty good.  Please don't kick me out of the local Slow Food Convivium for saying that.  Olive Garden has several really healthy choices and even offers a "garden menu" for people on special diets with options for gluten free and vegetarian meals.  They also list the nutritional content of every single item in their menu.  Pretty cool.

The check came, I pulled out the gift card and one of the managers approached with Dave's jacket in hand.  Here came our fourth surprise of the day.  They comped our check for lunch and were extremely kind and appreciative of the help we had offered.

So, now we get to celebrate again.  This time we can celebrate the fact that being a kind person sometimes does pay off.  Thanks Carolyn and thanks to Olive Garden for a surprising and very pleasant lunch!