By Jill Prichard

One hour and twenty minutes after you check in, your pocket begins to vibrate and a song lets you know, finally, after all the anticipation, you have a seat at the grand opening of the long-awaited Olive Garden restaurant in Logan.

Issuing pagers to customers on the waiting list was one of the busiest positions of the newest restaurant in Logan. People poured in to get their names on the list and were sent away with little beepers that would let them know that a table was ready.

This caused more confusion than was intended. I was issued one and was told that my wait would be about 45 minutes. With that in mind, I headed back to a friend's house so that they could pick up a book to read during our wait. It was about the corner of 700 North and 200 East that our pager started singing to us.

I turned my vehicle around and we proceeded back to the restaurant amazed that this was about a five minute wait.

To our dismay, we had learned that they went off when you got out of range.
I wasn't alone in the massive pager confusion.

I talked with General Manager James "Jim" Grider. I asked him what he was anticipating for this evening. Grider replied, "To be busy, and to have things run smoothly."

With what seemed like several hundred white Olive Garden shirts, I thought that it was near impossible for the night to run smooth.

"We hired about 165 employees, and half are here tonight," added Grider.

It was an amazing operation. I had my chair pulled out for me as I approached my table. It seemed as if every section of the restaurant had its own manager, hostess and a myriad of other people always checking on you.

I questioned my hostess about some of the things that I noticed. I wanted to know more about this operation from a worker's point of view.

"It is hectic, but full of energy," said Angela Chatterly. Chatterly is a resident of Logan and has worked in several other restaurant chains, but praised the eight days of training she received to be an employee at the Olive Garden.

I asked what exactly did they do while in eight days of training. They were able to taste everything on the menu, also taste and learn about the wines and learn about Tuscany, Italy, which is the home of Olive Garden.

She was somewhat overwhelmed with the crowds of people coming in, but thankful they were also being helped by trainers that came in from every Olive Garden in Utah and also some from Oregon and Washington.

With beautiful racks of expensive wines, exquisite rock walls intermixed with some brick, the only thing this night was lacking was enough room to fit this hungry valley.

The menu hasn't changed, the desserts are still rich with flavor and with enough people in a restaurant to make any fire marshal cringe, this was a tasty beginning to a new Logan tradition.

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