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December 1, 2010 in Food
Olive Garden debuts on Newport Highway
Olive Garden lovers don’t have to drive downtown for the restaurant’s Italian fare.
The new Olive Garden at 9780 N. Newport Highway is open. The restaurant seats almost 250 people and 165 servers were hired.
It also debuts the new Tuscan farmhouse design for Olive Garden restaurants. The style was inspired by Olive Garden’s Riserva di Fizzano restaurant in Tuscany, Italy, and features a rustic stone exterior along with exposed wood beams, terra cotta tile and stone and wood accents inside, according to a news release.
The Olive Garden is part of the Darden Family of restaurants, which includes Red Lobster and four other chains. The company oversees more than 700 restaurants, 87,000 employees and $3.3 billion in annual sales.
The Olive Garden on Newport Highway is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Reach the restaurant at (509) 466-1230.
There are menus, recipes and cooking videos online at www.olivegarden.com.
December Farmers Market on Saturday
The Kootenai County Farmers Market is helping customers deck the halls.
It will host a December Farmers Market on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Building 1 at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.
Evergreens, poinsettias, jams, jellies, pickles, herbs, local cider, honey and winter vegetables will be available. More than 45 vendors are expected.
For more information, call (208) 772-2290 or go to www.kootenaicountyfarmersmarket.com.
We’re always looking for fresh food news. Write to: The Fresh Sheet, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call (509) 459-5446, fax to (509) 459-5098 or send an e-mail to lorieh@spokesman.com.
Learn cupcake skills at Charm school 
sean96 on December 01 at 7:14 a.m.
Finally, fine dining hits N. Spokane, I really like the originality of this restaurant. I can not wait to line up with the 100’s of others for bland food. It will be a nice compliment to that other local neighborhood bistro, what’s it name again? Oh yhea Applebees.
force_vector on December 01 at 9:36 a.m.
Over priced noodles and sauce. Sweet.
misjustice on December 08 at 9:37 a.m.
Extremely slooooowwwwwww service. Went to a late lunch (2:30) of soup & salad. It took over an hour to get our soups & we didn’t get our salads until way after soups were gone.
Thinking it was just a lunch time service issue, we went again. Still really bad service & I sat waiting for my salad while my companion ate their soup (& feeling very strange eating while I waited).
Don’t know if we will go back.