I was fresh off Mississippi’s Hot Tamale Trail, tired and hungry and looking for a place to fill my stomach and lay my head. I found the latter at a chain hotel in West Tennessee and the former at a nearby Olive Garden.
(READ MORE: Travel trips for Mississippi’s Hot Tamale Trail)
I rarely eat at Olive Garden, but as it was the only choice, I took a seat at the bar, ordered a glass of wine and perused the menu. It was a rainy afternoon, and the bottomless soup-and-salad deal caught my eye. The soup of the day was the restaurant’s popular chicken gnocchi, which I’d never had but was certainly willing to try. And I’m glad I did.
Bottomless bowls of soup, to me, means you can get as much as you want. So after I finished one bowl, I ordered a second, and the server looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Bottomless” means I can get more than one bowl, I said to her. So she fulfilled my request and brought a second. I probably could have had a third, but from the reaction I got asking for a second bowl, I didn’t dare.