If you missed your chance to buy one of the 1,000 never-ending Pasta Passes from Olive Garden last year, mark your calendars… for tomorrow: the fast-casual chain says it’s bringing back the cards that entitle bearers to shove as much pasta down their gullets as they can for seven weeks. This time, friends and family can be included in the endless feast as well.
Olive Garden says on its website (warning: link has auto-play video) it’ll sell 1,000 of the $100 regular Pasta Passes starting Thursday, Sept. 17 at 2 p.m. EDT on its website — and this time, officials promise there won’t be any website glitches like last year, the Orlando Sentinel notes.
In a new twist, there will also be 1,000 family Pasta Passes up for grabs, which cost $300 and allow cardholders to bring up to three guests with them to the table.
Like last year, the passes aren’t transferable and can’t be sold — the person whose name is on the card is the only one who can use it. They can be used between Oct. 5 to Nov. 22, and entitle the bearer to a never-ending pasta bowl, as well as breadsticks, soda and soup or salad.
Last year’s promotional ballyhoo had the passes selling out in 45 minutes, and inspired a slew of stories about people who were taking advantage of the passes to the fullest: there was the guy who ate 115 meals at Olive Garden in seven weeks, the reader who tried to make us bow to the power of his Pasta Pass and turn us into his vassals, and the do-gooder who figured out how to use his pass to feed people in need of a decent meal.
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist