Olive Garden’s current slogan is “When you’re here, you’re family,” but it wasn’t always. At one point the Italian-American restaurant downsized its slogan to “We’re all family here” and even attempted to reinvent the wheel with “Go Olive Garden,” which is perhaps the single most milquetoast catchphrase the carb empire could have dreamed up, and honestly, that’s probably what it was going for.
Because here’s the thing about “When you’re here, you’re family” — it’s a reassurance in equal measure as it is a threat. If you love and respect the family, the family will love and respect you, but if you cause problems for the family, vengeance will be swift and expensive, as demonstrated by TikTok‘s @lillianstrauch’s sever-exclusive power play that she reserves specially for rude tables.
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the darkest day-to-day operations of Olive Garden, Lillian toys about with the electronic serving display, gleefully mimicking the set of actions that she whips out for bad customers. Specifically, she rings up every drink refill and side dish so that the culprits pay as much of a price as possible.
The kicker? Lillian isn’t the only server with this particular vengeful streak. One commenter shared their tactic of ringing up soups and salads as appetizers rather than side dishes. Another pointed out how those little $0.75 dishes of ranch dressing can pack quite a punch when they join forces. Indeed, the coven of Olive Garden servers all make each other stronger with every passing rude customer, and they will soon consume the nation if we don’t smarten up.
In fact, one could even claim that the goal of Olive Garden as an establishment is to test the limits of one’s character. One only needs to take a glance at Olive Garden’s official website to be reminded that never-ending servings of bread and salads have always been a defining feature of the chain, as is the never-ending pasta promotion it launched just over a decade ago. This eventually escalated into an incredibly exclusive Lifetime Pasta Pass, which was famously rumored to have been revoked from conservative broadcaster and stolen-election narrative-pusher Sean Hannity following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots (a claim that Snopes has long since debunked).
Moral of the story? The promise of unlimited bread, salads, and pasta is enough to make anybody show their true colors, and if those true colors involve being rude to wait staff, disrupting the peace of other diners, and generally being a whole-grain dingus, expect the Lillians of the world to return the favor in the form of a beefy receipt. Remember, you’re family, and the family is always watching.