Olive Garden gets 2.2% boost as diners splurge on extras

Olive Garden is weaning diners off two-for-$25 dinners and luring them to splurge a bit on extras like drinks and desserts.

Those add-ons, a sign that customers might be more willing to open their wallets, helped push sales up for a restaurant chain that limped through the recession and a shift toward “better” fast food personified by Chipotle.

The struggling restaurant chain said Friday quarterly sales edged up 2.2 percent at established locations, marking the first back-to-back quarterly gains in five years. That’s partly because diners were ordering more extras like alcohol and desserts and Olive Garden pulled back on discounts.

After Communist-era pain, small Czech brewers thriving

After shutting down in droves during the decades of Communist rule, the Czech Republic’s small brewers are staging a comeback.

Dilapidated beer-making facilities dotted across this patch of Central Europe, which is better known for a clutch of global brands like Pilsner Urquell, are being reopened to revive local brewing traditions that date back to the 10th century.

You’ll have to visit the Czech Republic to taste any of it, though – production is still too small for export and many beers are not available outside the towns and villages where they are brewed.

Tourism in Tunisia, already ailing, hurt anew by terrorism

The terror attack in Tunisia that killed 21 people is a fresh blow to the North African nation’s tourism industry, which has been struggling since the country’s revolution of 2011.

Cruise companies canceled stops in the country as 17 of the victims at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis were passengers on shore excursions from two cruise ships in port that day.

Tunisia’s president urged tourists to keep visiting, insisting that security measures are being taken.

– From news service reports