Even with the cost of eating out going up everywhere, Olive Garden continues to be a high-performing unit of the Darden Restaurant portfolio, accounting for about 44 percent of the parent company’s sales. So it can afford to experiment a bit.
In early March, an “OG” monogram appeared on the restaurant’s Facebook page, causing either outrage or amusement among followers. The coincidental connection to the phrase “original gangster” sort of made sense, and truth be told, the monogram was already in use on employee aprons and in other minor applications.
So is this slow-motion rebrand or just stirring the soup? It appears to be the latter as the restaurant website and app still use the original logo. The OG release has generated plenty of chat, of course, causing customers to get involved with the identity in a very personal way.