Different strokes everywhere. One common point is that many of the great restaurants lose something as they expand. Chevy's comes to mind. Freshness is their hype and at one time when they had just a few locations, it was fresh, there was serious quality control and we kept going back. Now it is anything but fresh. Olive Garden also falls into this category. It's got to be difficult to maintain the quality when the managers are trained and hired and transferred in just a few months.

Mike Royko did a hilarious piece about this subject years ago, comparing a Midwest family operation run by Greeks.. Father working 18 hours a day, mom inspecting each plate and all the kids involved. This vs the MBA for the chain who was gone in a month.