Olive Garden Unveils Never Ending Pasta Pass

If you love pasta, and I mean really love pasta, you'll never have a better opportunity than this to get your money's worth from the Olive Garden.

The national Italian restaurant chain is introducing the "Never Ending Pasta Pass," which entitles the holder to all of the pasta, salad, breadsticks, and soft drinks he can drink for the next seven weeks. Cost is $100. Doing the quick math...if you have lunch and dinner at Olive Garden every one of the available days, you're only paying about $1 per meal (plus tip!).

If you're interested in this sort of thing, you'll need to act fast. As USA Today reports:

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.

As an added bonus, up to seven guest also receive free soft drinks with a paid meal. Of course, that also encourages the pasta pass holder to bring friends who will spend cash. You can't share your "free" pasta with friends, though taking home leftovers is OK.

Now as a well-known cheapskate, I'm intrigued by the possibility of landing one of these passes. On the flip side I'd likely eat so much that pasta would be dead to me for the next 15 years. Perhaps it's for the best that I let someone else take on the challenge.