Unlimited garlic breadsticks have been a staple at Olive Garden, but an activist investor is calling on the Italian food chain to give one or maybe two servings of the carbs to patrons. 
 
 Doing so would reduce "massive unnecessary waste" and save more than $4 million, according to Starboard Value LP, an investor that is pressuring Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants Inc. to make changes in its operations. 
 
 "Olive Garden uses 675 million to 700 million breadsticks a year," or an average of three a customer, Starboard said as part of a 294-page filing on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission on how Darden can be restructured. "The average customer does not consume three breadsticks." 
 
 Starboard said there is a long-standing internal policy of giving one breadstick per person, plus one additional one for the table, but it’s not adhered to regularly. 
 
 "Servers should ask if guests want more breadsticks," which would also improve the temperature of the breadsticks and therefore the customer experience, Starboard said. 
 
 "The solution does not involve eliminating Olive Garden's famous unlimited breadsticks, just improving the implementation," Starboard said. 
 
 More than half of the time, servers don’t follow the breadstick policy and put too many on the table, it said, citing mystery shoppers. 
 
 Starboard Value also said that, with fewer breadsticks on the table, guests will have more room for appetizers and desserts, which improves profit margins. 
 
 "We remain open-minded toward all ideas that support long-term value creation for our shareholders and improve the dining experience for our guests," Darden President Gene Lee said in a statement. 
 
 Starboard also recommended the chain ask diners if they want wine, put salt in the pasta pots, clear tables faster and develop a smartphone application. 
 
 The plan also calls for separating Darden's real-estate assets. It would raise the company's stock by $19 to $38 a share, the investment advisory firm said. 
 
 byerak@tribune.com 
 
 Follow @beckyyerak | Follow @chibreakingbiz 
 
 

 NEW YORK (AP) — Maybe there is such a thing as too many breadsticks. 
 
 In this May 22, 2014 photo, patrons enter an Olive Garden Restaurant in Short Pump, Va. Olive Garden is hurting itself by piling on too many breadsticks, according to an investor that's disputing how... (Associated Press) 
 
 In a nearly 300-page treatise on what's wrong with Olive Garden and its management, investor Starboard Value suggests the Italian restaurant chain is being reckless with its unlimited breadsticks. The hedge fund notes the chain's official policy is to bring out one breadstick per customer at a time, plus an extra for the table. 
 
 But Starboard says servers bring out more than that, leading to waste — and cold breadsticks. Starboard notes that it isn't pushing for an end to unlimited breadsticks, just more control in how they're doled out. 
 
 "Darden management readily admits that after sitting just 7 minutes, the breadsticks deteriorate in quality," Starboard said in its presentation. 
 
 The incredibly detailed document was released Thursday and lays out how Olive Garden could improve its performance. It's part of Starboard's push to take control of the board of the chain's parent company, Darden Restaurants Inc. 
 
 The company, based in Orlando, Florida, has come under fire for failing to fix declining sales at its flagship chain. In the latest quarter, Olive Garden's sales fell 1.3 percent at established locations as fewer diners visited. 
 
 Darden said in a statement that its "Olive Garden Brand Renaissance" is already underway. It said it will review Starboard's plan, but noted that many of the strategies "are already being implemented across our company and are showing results." 
 
 Part of Olive Garden's troubles stem from the growing popularity of places like Chipotle, where people feel they can get food comparable to a sit-down restaurant for less money. 
 
 But Starboard also criticized Darden's management of Olive Garden, including its "outdated" advertising strategy, which it said focuses too heavily on TV commercials. It also took issue with the chain's new logo, quoting a tweet by restaurant analyst Howard Penney that said it looked like "a second-grader's cursive practice." 
 
 Among Starboard's other complaints were Olive Garden's failure to salt the water used to boil its pasta, noting that "If you were to google 'how to cook pasta,' the first step of Pasta 101 is to salt the water." 
 
 It also criticized Olive Garden's liberal use of salad dressing, offerings such as fried lasagna and the Italiano Burger that aren't "authentic Italian" and even the length of the asparagus it serves. Rather than making its soups from scratch, Starboard said Olive Garden should save money and improve consistency by using an outside supplier for the bases. 
 
 Starboard also noted Olive Garden gets only 8 percent of its sales from alcohol, while other Italian restaurant chains get more than twice that. 
 
 As for Olive Garden's popular breadsticks, Starboard said quality seems to have declined and compared them to hot dog buns. 
 
 In an earnings conference call Friday morning, Darden President Gene Lee noted that the company worked on fixing its breadsticks last month, such as how long they're cooked and how many are served. Lee said the chain's next focus will be pasta. 
 
 Jonathan Maze, editor of Restaurant Finance Monitor, compared such criticisms by activist investors to election campaigns. 
 
 "The activist is going to use what it can find to convince shareholders. The company is like the incumbent that has to defend what it's doing," Maze said. 
 
 Still, Maze noted that level of detail in Starboard's report was extraordinary. He said that's likely because Starboard is getting input from its slate of board nominees, which includes Brad Blum, a former president of Olive Garden. 
 
 Despite the criticisms, Darden can point to at least one recent success: its promotion offering customers the chance to pay $100 for seven weeks of unlimited pasta. The stunt gained widespread media coverage and the 1,000 pasta passes made available online sold out in less than an hour this week. 
 
 The company's annual meeting is scheduled for Oct. 10, when shareholders will get to vote on who gets control of the board of directors. 
 
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 Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi
– Everyone who was lucky enough to nab an Olive Garden all-you-can-eat pass, get ready. Starboard Value, an investor trying to wrest control from Olive Garden's parent company, submitted a nearly 300-page filing to the SEC yesterday outlining that it takes umbrage with the restaurant's unlimited breadstick policy, stating that "Olive Garden uses 675 million to 700 million breadsticks a year, or an average of three a customer," the Chicago Tribune reports. While there is an official breadstick policy that mandates servers wait till a customer has consumed one breadstick before bringing out another, this policy is routinely ignored, and masses of forgotten sticks "deteriorate" on the table, Starboard says. Parent company Darden Restaurants says there's an "Olive Garden brand renaissance" in the works, but the cranky investor has a beef with plenty of other issues that it feels may be contributing to declining sales, reports AP: Starboard doesn't like the restaurant's "liberal use of salad dressings" or the length of its asparagus spears. Also: Olive Garden has an antiquated advertising strategy, its logo looks like a "second-grader's cursive practice," and the restaurant’s chefs don't salt their pasta water. "If you were to Google 'how to cook pasta,' the first step of Pasta 101 is to salt the water," the document asserts. To throw extra salt in Olive Garden's wound instead of directly in the pasta water, the complaint also gets in a dig comparing the chain's breadsticks to hot dog buns.