For a decade now, driving around Anchorage, it's been a whispered secret, a rumor so flighty saying it at full volume might scare it away. Passing a vacant lot, anywhere in town, a friend, family member, or even yourself might point at the empty space and say:
"I heard there's an Olive Garden going in there."
The rumors never came to anything, though, as the lots filled up with other businesses -- sometimes local businesses, sometimes other chain stores arriving from the Lower 48 -- or continued to sit empty.
But on Monday, that whispered dream of an Olive Garden in Alaska's largest city will come true, when the first-ever Olive Garden in the Last Frontier makes its debut on Muldoon Road. It will make Hawaii the only state in the union without the chain restaurant serving up its "hospitaliano," as the chain is fond of advertising.
As far as dining experiences go, it's pretty non-objectionable -- everything is the standard throughout the chain. The pasta dishes are mostly standard Italian fare, and the unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks are an oft-cited draw for the bargain hunter. This writer is a particular fan of the Pasta e fagioli soup.
But will it be the best Italian restaurant in Anchorage? Some will surely say yes, many will say no. Many will still rely on their old standbys rather than visiting the sure-to-be packed Olive Garden. Others will say instead, "When are they going to open a Romano's Macaroni Grill" -- the Ford to the Olive Garden's Chevy -- "up here?"
So why has Anchorage been in such a tizzy over the restaurant's opening?
It's a bit of an intangible, but the Olive Garden is just the latest in a long chain (yes, pun intended) of national restaurant openings over the last decade or so in Alaska's largest city. Is it good for Alaska?
Chain of chains
Back in 1998, The Gap opened its first store in Alaska. I still remember it, because I was a kid in high school, and thus particularly susceptible to the chain's youth-oriented advertising. An article from the Anchorage Daily News the day after the store's opening described a hectic scene more fitting for Wal-Mart on Black Friday than Anchorage's Dimond Mall in August.
"Within an hour of Friday's opening, the store was so packed that lines 20 people deep had backed up at all four registers," the ADN's Elizabeth Manning wrote at the time. "The line for the fitting room snaked through half the store."
It seems crazy now, in retrospect, that we Alaskans got so excited about something that we all take more or less for granted today. But it wasn't the first time, and as the Olive Garden demonstrates, it won't be the last.
A year before The Gap opened, entrepeneur Dan Farr brought Cold Stone Creamery north after convincing the company that an ice cream shop could survive -- and indeed thrive -- in Alaska. He was right. Cold Stone did booming business, especially the first few years, and the company now gives out an accolade titled the Dan Farr Pioneer Award, "presented to an individual who has taken Cold Stone Creamery to new heights while establishing new standards of excellence, performance and growth."
Likewise, when Alaska saw its first Chili's restaurant open in 2002, the location broke national sales records for the first five months of its existence. When Dairy Queen opened on Tudor Road in 2007 -- after a 17 year absence from the city -- it similarly broke sales records for its first six days of opening.
Sure, it was in the middle of a heat wave, but still. Alaska loves its chains.
Wanting what we cant have
Nailing down why Alaskans love chain restaurants is less easy than acknowledging that the love exits.
Part of it is surely wanting what we can't have.
Even in the state's largest city, chains aren't that old. Many stores and restaurants that had been household names in the Lower 48 for decades didn't come to Anchorage and others Alaska cities until the 1980s and 1990s. Even today, when Alaskans are traveling out of state, it's a bit of a novelty to visit restaurants like the Olive Garden and Red Lobster.
Not only that, but Alaska isn't exempt from the national advertising for these chains, which means we're occasionally bombarded with enticing ads for something we don't have access to.
It's a strange paradox that Alaskans, who pride themselves on their independence and uniqueness, should take so well to the most mainstream of American dining. But beyond the obvious appeal, is there a benefit for Anchorage? Is a chain restaurant a better economic driver than a locally-owned and operated one?
According to Neal Fried, an economist with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, that's hard to say.
"I think ownership is key to answering that question," Fried said. "Some of (the chain restaurants) are owned locally, some are not. Some are franchises, others are corporate."
Which means that the way the money from a restaurant, and where it ends up, is also hard to determine. According to Fried, property taxes, some wages, and other parts might stay in state, where with a corporate and publically traded company like Olive Garden, much of the profit would likely end up going to shareholders around the nation and even the world.
"With a locally owned restaurant, it's more likely that there's a better chance that that money stays local, but it may not," Fried said. "I can't go around asking people who own these restaurants."
Alyssa Shanks, also an economist with the Alaska Labor Department, said the decision to open a new restaurant or chain up here speaks to the market climate, since companies continue to see Alaska as a positive place to invest money.
And at least in the early phases, Shanks said, chains can be good for the Alaska economy as some national companies will hire additional employees in the days, weeks or months after opening, to determine how many employees are necessary to run the business.
"They'll stack way, way up when they start and kind of figure out how many people they need," Shanks said. "If you're not making money with that many employees, then you know you need fewer employees. They may initially hire more people just because that's the business plan."
The Anchorage Olive Garden will employ about 165 employees at the opening, the company said.
A 2011 report written by Shanks said that annual employment in the leisure and hospitality sector in Alaska totaled more than 31,000 in 2010 -- and about two-thirds of those employees worked in food and drink.
A disproportionate number of those come from Alaska's residential hubs like Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau, since food service and hospitality are much smaller employers in Alaska's more rural areas, where restaurants and hotels are few and far between. But Fried noted that there are several reasons why Anchorage's restaurant industry is so robust.
"My guess is that it's a pretty good community for it, we have high incomes, lots of disposable income," Fried said. The median household income for Anchorage was $70,151, and Alaska is one of only three states to have added jobs since the beginning of the economic recession in December of 2007.
"Fifty percent of the average American's meals are eaten away from the home," Shanks said. "I don't think it's a trend that's going to go away any time soon. I think we're going to continue to see growth from around Anchorage and statewide."
Additionally, Fried said, the population is relatively young and has a lot of turnover -- and then there are the tourists.
"The other thing we have in Alaska is a very large visitors' sector," Fried said. "Skagway, Seward have far more restaurants than they normally would because of the tourism sector."
As of November, about 11,000 people were working in the food and drink sector in Anchorage, representing about 7 percent of the total workforce, Fried said.
At long last
Now, Alaska's first Olive Garden is about to open, and the long wait comes to an end.
Well, maybe.
My wife and I and several of her co-workers have a friendly wager going on how long the wait will be for a party of four at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23 -- opening night.
The estimates range from 45 minutes to three hours. Given Anchorage's history with chains, I'm leaning more toward the latter. But with a bevy of employees preparing over the past weeks to deal with what's sure to be a crush of traffic, it's anybody's guess.
Restaurant general manager Dawn Bellerose is, like the Olive Garden itself, a recent transplant to Alaska. Bellerose said that she recently moved to the Last Frontier with her husband and son, and she's "excited to be here." She said the restaurant's opening, despite a minor water leak in the restaurant last week, is on track.
"We are spot on, ready to go," Bellerose said. She added that the restaurant will only be open for dinner the first week, making anyone who wants to check it out for lunch wait a little bit longer for their unlimited salad and breadsticks. It will open on Saturday, Jan. 29 for lunch at 11 a.m., and be open from then on.
So, as manager of the most-anticipated restaurant to hit Anchorage in years, has Bellerose been hearing feedback from the target demographic in Anchorage?
"I feel like I'm a celebrity," Bellerose joked. "I heard someone refer to it the other day as 'hallowed ground.'"
She said that she encountered similar enthusiasm when was General Manager of another restaurant's opening in Worcester, Mass. -- the first location for Olive Garden in that city as well.
Fortunately, though the Olive Garden located at the Tikahtnu Commons mall in East Anchorage will certainly be busy, the company is already looking to open a second location near the Dimond Mall.
Will Alaska's chain envy ever end? Other businesses rumored to be eyeing the 49th state are the sportman's gear retailer Cabela's, discount department store Ross, Macy's, Whole Foods, and Staples. Whether any of those comes up remains to be seen, but Buffalo Wild Wings is currently getting ready to occupy a building sandwiched between Northern Lights and 36th and Benson on C Street, so there's at least one more chain in Alaska's near future.
Odds are good it won't be the last. Which chains would you like to see come to Anchorage?
Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.