When Marilyn Hagerty’s candid, downright charming review of the Olive Garden went viral in 2012, she nearly broke the Internet. “The place is impressive. It’s fashioned in Tuscan farmhouse style with a welcoming entryway,” she wrote. “The chicken Alfredo ($10.95) was warm and comforting on a cold day. The portion was generous. My server was ready with Parmesan cheese.”
The 88-year-old Grand Forks Herald columnist quickly became the target of snarky commentary from food snobs near and far. “I got scathing emails from everywhere,” she recalls. “Then, I got a rush of emails from people praising my reviews of everyday places. I think many of the critics had never seen a newspaper with friendly informative reviews.”
Her son, a Wall Street Journal reporter, had to explain to her what exactly “going viral” meant. The hype that followed, including a whirlwind culinary and media tour, didn’t faze Hagerty. After all, her Eatbeat column is just one of five she pens weekly — a cutback from her full-time days at the paper, where she’s worked since 1957. (“I retired when I was 65, but I forgot to go home,” she quips.)
The proudest accomplishment of her decades-long career came later that year, when she won the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Media; past recipients include Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw and Garrison Keillor. She was presented the honor by the late USA Today founder himself. “Al Neuharth happened to be a classmate of mine at the University of South Dakota,” Hagerty explains. “He credited me with leading him away from radio and into newspaper work when I was editor of the school paper.”
Among her admirers? There’s Anderson Cooper, who offered her a cruise to Italy (“which I never took,” she says) and sent her to Georgia to review a combination Olive Garden/Red Lobster. There’s celebrated chef Eric Ripert of New York City’s three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin, who noted he was honored by her visit and review. And then there’s the local Girl Scouts troop that created a “Marilyn” badge. But her ultimate fan is perhaps an unlikely one: outspoken chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain. “At first, he was a critic,” she recalls. “But then he got to thinking my columns were telling a story not told before — the story of restaurants in a midsize town in the Midwest.”
Bourdain, whom Hagerty calls a gentleman, even published a book of her columns, Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews. “A straightforward account of what people have been eating — still are eating — in much of America,” he mused in the tome’s foreword. “She is never mean — even when circumstances would clearly excuse a sharp elbow, a cruel remark. In fact, watching Marilyn struggle to find something nice to say about a place she clearly loathes is part of the fun.”
Hagerty returned to the spotlight last fall when she reviewed Applebee’s. “We studied the menu. We sipped our water. When all was said and done, we both ordered the Chicken Oriental Salad,” she penned. “You can get a half-size version for $8.59. The regular size is $9.99, but you don’t need that.”
It happened again earlier this year, when she toured the area McDonald’s outposts. “If you read the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, you might be worried about the future of McDonald’s. If you zip around greater Grand Forks on a cold January day, the McDonald’s restaurants seem alive and well,” she wrote. “My visit to the McDonald’s near Columbia Mall is where I enjoyed my secret sin — a Big Mac for $4.39 — something I do once every couple of years.”
As Bourdain aptly points out, Hagerty is not naive. And despite some perceptions of her, she has not led a sheltered life. On the contrary: Her career has taken her across America and across the world. And she’s most certainly no stranger to snide remarks. “When people criticize my reviews, I don’t feel I have to explain anything,” she says. “Back in the 1980s, my publisher told me he liked what I was doing. And in spite of any criticism then, I just kept on going.”
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