From Server to General Manager of Carlsbad Olive Garden: Meet Andrew Ballheim

CARLSBAD, CA — The general manager of the Carlsbad Olive Garden said he keeps an eye out for employees who have a special something about them.

“When we do manager meetings, we tend to point out people who are doing well,” said General Manager Andrew Ballheim. “You want to grasp that right away because we don’t want to lose those people.”

Ballheim, who was promoted to the general manager position in June, is grateful one of his managers had their eye on him back in 2003 when he came to work as a server at the Carlsbad Olive Garden. He had been working as a server at an Olive Garden in Iowa for two and a half years, and transferred within the company for the move to Carlsbad for a change of pace.

His general manager at the time saw potential in him, promoting him to a certified trainer. He helped train and hire servers for the next two years, until his district manager, Toni Ross, asked him if he’d like to go into management. Within a month, he was a front-of-the-house manager.

Over the next several years, he worked in all areas of management at the Carmel Mountain, Escondido, Carlsbad and Temecula locations. Most recently, he served as culinary manager in Temecula for three years.

“It was a lot more work than people think it is,” Ballheim said. “You are making sure you are providing safe food and that you are providing your cooks the proper training.”

It also means getting there at 8 a.m., three hours before opening time, to ensure the soups, sauces and other items made from scratch such as lasagna are correctly prepared.

“In culinary, you really have a responsibility over the staff and everyone who comes in the door,” he said.

He also learned a lot about the level of community involvement Olive Garden strives for. He often helped provide food for local schools, hospitals and fire departments.

Now that Ballheim, 39, who lives in Hidden Meadows with his wife, Stephanie, and two daughters, Ashley, 17, and Grace, 9, is back in Carlsbad, he said it feels like home.

“I really see this Olive Garden as home to me,” Ballheim said. “I didn’t take Olive Garden seriously until I came out here to Carlsbad. What I thought was just a serving job ended up being a nice career for me. I am back home running the place and it feels kind of surreal.”

Now he is running a staff of about 125 people — 55 to 60 servers, 10 hosts, 30 to 40 cooks and 10 bussers — and says he plans on making it “the best Olive Garden we can be.”

He said he also plans to keep community involvement at the core of what Olive Garden does, whether that is through donating back-to-school supplies or the “Pasta for Pennies” program, which raises money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“It is one of the things I continue to strive to do wherever I am,” Ballheim said. “It is nice that it is very well promoted within our company culture — to always be helping out our community.”