Detroit Free Press- Olive Garden is about to try a pretty outlandish gimmick to lure folks in the door: pasta up the kazoo.
They’re not calling it that, of course But on Monday, the casual dining chain whose business has seriously-softened in recent years, will announce plans for its first-ever “Never Ending Pasta Pass” — which, for $100, gives the holder the right to consume all of the pasta, salad, bread and Coca-Cola branded soft drinks that they can stuff down for seven weeks.
But you may need to act fast. Only 1,000 of these pasta passes will be sold — beginning Monday at 3 p.m. ET — online via the Olive Garden web site. Nothing like being one of 1,000 VIP’s who can gorge on pasta for 49 days in a row. The PR stunt piggybacks with the chain’s annual “Never Ending Pasta Bowl” promo, Sept. 22 through Nov. 9., which lets folks eat all the pasta they want for $9.99.
Well it was a good run, significantly below average body. It is now time to go full fatboy and gorge until I cannot gorge anymore. I am talking “glutony victim from Se7en” level of gorging. Actually, if I mix in a salad once every ten visits, everything should be fine, right? And when I say mix in a salad, I mean a few pieces of lettuce and a metric ton of crutons.
So at 2:59 PM I will be on the Olive Garden site wearing out my F9 button like some desperate Dave Matthews fan who “just neeeeeeds to see them play one more time this year”. After I win buy the pass, I will have to map out my strategy for trying every type of pasta/sauce combination. Why? Because YOLO.
PS- The hardest question of all-time is Olive Garden Breadsticks vs. Outback Honey Wheat Bread. My first inclination is to always go with the breadsticks, but the Outback bread comes with that sweet butter that hits the spot every single time. It is still a question I am not comfortable answering.
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