Restaurant chain Olive Garden says it is all about making its guests feel like family, and it has now extended its family invite to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Kelce needs to eat a lot of calories as an athlete, and thanks to the help of some old social media posts, he might be able to chow down on as much of what Olive Garden has to offer as he wants.
The football star appeared unable to get enough “Fettucini [sic] with the Chicken Alfredo!!” in 2011, with posts on X, formerly Twitter, finding a second life now that the restaurant has replied to him.
In 2011, Kelce wrote: “Up at Olive Garden with papa!! Had to grab the Fettucini with the Chicken Alfredo!! #shmackin.”
Ralf Ibing – firo sportphoto/Getty Images
Although 12 years later, Olive Garden finally replied to his post on November 15 with: “It’s a love story, baby just say ‘when.'”
The quote being a lyric from the Taylor Swift song “Love Story.”
Kelce is a success in his own right, but this year, he was introduced to a different audience, Swifties. The football star is dating music sensation Swift, with him now becoming a global name as the pair have arguably become the most talked-about celebrity couple of the last few months.
The post had been viewed around 2.8 million times by app users when this story was published, and now the food establishment is on track for another viral post inspired by Kelce.
On Wednesday, Olive Garden shared a photo of Kelce’s 2011 meal, fettucinne chicken Alfredo, and captioned it with his catchphrase “#shmackin”. The post at the time this article was published had been viewed more than 587,000 times.
The tweets were a talking point on the latest episode of Kelce and his brother Jason’s podcast New Heights, with Travis joking that “no one followed” him back then, and “I was just using Twitter as a diary, just out here saying nonsense.”
Other “diary” entries at the time included: “‘I just gave a squirle a piece of bread, and it straight smashed all of it” to which he mocked “and spelled squirrel like a jacka**” and a “NAP TIME!!!!!!!!!” post which his brother found great humor in.
Olive Garden’s “#shmackin” win went down a treat with followers of the brand and Kelce, with one social media user commenting: “Who could have predicted just how deeply the Olive Garden would become enmeshed in the Taylor Swift universe.”
Another shared: “Olive Garden is my Swiftie best friend! #shmackin.”
“Can’t wait for Taylor to write shmackin into a song,” a second joked, while a third chimed in with, “Olive Garden: when you’re here, you’re #schmackin.”
The post has seen many fans now wanting to try the “#shmackin” dish, with one adding: “This is a sign to beg my parents to get it for dinner” and, “Fine, I’m on my way.”
Newsweek has contacted Olive Garden and Travis Kelce’s publicist via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
