Carb addicts also have their place in the sun - or at least that's what Olive Garden's new business strategy is based in. Starting this Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time, the casual Italian dining restaurant chain will be introducing a new feature: the 'Never Ending Pasta Pass', for $100.
The pasta passes, which can be purchased solely on the Olive Garden website - an exclusive, the company says: only 1,000 of them will be issued - will buy users seven weeks of unlimited pasta at the restaurant, plus equally never-ending salad, bread and Coca-Cola soft drinks to accompany their pastas with. This was released in conjunction with the restaurant's most popular promotional offer, the Never Ending Pasta Bowl, which served 13 million bowls of pasta in its 2013 edition last year.
Olive Garden regulars will be pleased to know they can gobble their favorite pasta dishes from the restaurant because, as the company said in a statement, "the Never Ending Pasta Pass can be used any day of the week or every day of the week". The restaurant estimates there are 150 combinations of its pasta, sauce and toppings, all available for this huge food challenge - one not made for the, quite literally, faints of heart. The only requirement for users to get a Never Ending Pasta Pass is to be over 18 years of age - after that, anything goes, even sharing your pass with a friend; basically, the benefits can be gathered from whoever is the holder at the moment. "Of course, if someone shares we do understand - we're not policing the tables," says Olive Garden executive vice president of marketing, Jay Spenchian.
While the offer is only limited to a thousand users across the country, it's still a fairly interesting marketing experiment - albeit not the healthiest one. We just hope those 1,000 pasta lovers will share, keep an exercise routine throughout and then possibly a detox afterwards!
