1996 law led to Olive Garden

| Sunday, February 11, 2007

RAPID CITY — If the South Dakota Legislature passes a bill to create special development districts for liquor licenses, it won’t be the first time that state law has been changed to accommodate chain restaurants.

Before 1996, South Dakota law barred any individual or company from owning more than three liquor licenses in the state. In the mid-1990s, that law was the main obstacle keeping the Olive Garden Italian restaurant out of Rapid City.

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Its parent company also operated the Red Lobster restaurant chain. With an Olive Garden and a Red Lobster in Sioux Falls and a Red Lobster in Rapid City, the company had the maximum number of liquor licenses allowed by South Dakota law.

So the South Dakota Legislature tailored a special provision that a restaurant company could hold as many as six on-sale liquor licenses if it derived more than half of its revenue from the sale of food, and if the restaurants are in a large South Dakota city.

By the time the law passed, however, Olive Garden’s parent company was going through internal changes that slowed its construction schedule.

Olive Garden didn’t open its Rapid City restaurant until 2005.

— Journal staff

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