New $2.6M Olive Garden restaurant opens in Santa Isabel
Grupo Colón-Gerena, parent company of the Olive Garden franchise in Puerto Rico, announced the opening of its sixth location on the island, following an investment of $2.6 million.
The 6,000 square-foot restaurant is the first in the southern region, located in Santa Isabel. It is generating 92 jobs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also the first to feature a drive-up window for carry-out service, Jorge Colón-Gerena, chairman of the parent company said.
“This is more than a new restaurant, it’s a symbol of the recovery of commercial activity in Puerto Rico, which has experienced so much adversity in recent years,” he said.
“Puerto Ricans want to go back to work, go back to normal, but with caution, since this doesn’t mean that the threat of the pandemic has ended,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lizmarie Medina, Grupo Colón-Gerena’s vice president of marketing said the new restaurant in Santa Isabel “is in full compliance with the latest regulations established by the Executive Order.”
“This means it’s operating with a 25% capacity in the dining room, in addition to the implementation of the strictest health and hygiene protocols to ‘flatten’ the contagion curve,” she said.
“For this reason, we’re launching innovations such as a drive-thru service, to give diners more security and convenience options,” she said.
The new Olive Garden in Santa Isabel is located at the Plaza Prados del Sur shopping center. The restaurant incorporates the new design aesthetic the brand recently launched, “with a Renaissance-style interior design, pleasant lighting, and modern music,” the company said.
