Where do Americans mingle?

TO TIME travel back to the 1960s simply step into an Olive Garden. Booths at the chain restaurant, known for its surfeit of breadsticks, are lined with spotted upholstery. The sound of Frank Sinatra playing from old-school speakers evokes thoughts of salesmen in Chevrolets coming home to their darlings in the suburbs for supper. But look carefully and you’ll find that the patrons more closely resemble today’s America. A nurse in scrubs scarfs down a post-shift meal behind a tattooed African-American duo on a date. A family of a dozen—the women in hijabs, the men in dress shirts—debates desserts as a lady with a gap in her front teeth fills up on unlimited salad and packs her pasta for tomorrow.