Olive Garden Tops In Fayetteville Food

For many of Fayetteville’s top 10 restaurants, sales were down in the last fiscal year by 4.5 percent

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant was the city’s most popular eatery in 2009 and 2008. Already tops in 2008, the popular dining establishing once again bested the competition in 2009, raking in a mighty $3.5 million in sales.

Always popular Golden Corral finished as No. 2 in 2009, while Chick-Fil-A (NW Village) did a booming business of $3.29 million.

Yet another Chick-Fil-A and the McDonald’s on Joyce Avenue are fast becoming among the fastest locations to grab a bite. Meanwhile, westside favorite Catfish Hole made a notable dent in 2009’s final totals.

Percentage-wise, business was down notably at Red Lobster and Shogun Steak and Sushi for fiscal 2009.

Regarding the overall findings, Marilyn Heifner, executive director of the Fayetteville Advertising & Promotion Commission, made note of the ice storm that wreaked havoc across the region in early 2009.

Still, despite a rocky economy in general, people are undeniably eating out – which is definitely good news for the city’s bottom line.

Of those uptown Fayetteville restaurants that seem to do so well year after year, Heifner surmised that it’s because “they are name restaurants” and “people know they will be quality.”

“We’ve done a really hard job encouraging conventions and festivals and making people aware of all the restaurants in Fayetteville,” she said. “We feel like what we’re doing is working.”