Olive Garden Gears Up for Owings Mills Location

Plans appear to be under way for an Olive Garden to set up shop in Owings Mills.

As of mid-March, Baltimore County officials had approved a liquor license for an Olive Garden at 6 Restaurant Drive, located just north of the Owings Mills Mall. The facade of Tony Roma's, a honky tonk, cowboy-themed chain of rib, steak and seafood houses, remains at the proposed location. It closed in early 2010.

On Monday, Olive Garden spokeswoman Heidi Schauer said she could neither confirm nor deny whether the popular Italian restaurant will come to Owing Mills. 

"To avoid rumors and speculation, we do not comment on any specific plans until a project has received the necessary approvals," she wrote in an e-mail.

The Olive Garden would be one of five choices, including , and , in the plaza next door to Owings Mills Mall called The Restaurants of Owings Mills.

Meanwhile, the mall has struggled to maintain itself as a shopper's destination for years, having gone from losing Saks Fifth Avenue in 1995, Sears in 2001 and Lord & Taylor in 2002 to   

The paperwork to add the restaurant to the area is on track, said Darryl Putty, a county project manager. The county's development review committee requested a CRG refinement, a standard request to identify new developments like Olive Garden within county plans, at its March 15 meeting, he said.

The Baltimore County Liquor Board approved the application of Collen Hunter, Horace Dawson III and Barbara Gillis of Baltimore GMR, Inc., for the Olive Garden's class B liquor license at its March 14 meeting, according to the county website. 

Olive Garden is an Italian-American restaurant chain owned by Darden Restaurants, Inc., a family of restaurants that includes the and Longhorn Steakhouse. Olive Garden has nine locations in Maryland, including , and .