ORLANDO, Fla. _ Olive Garden on Thursday will offer 50 lucky customers a lifetime of meals for $500.
In the past, the Never Ending Pasta Pass promotion, introduced five years ago, had offered unlimited servings of pastas, sauces and toppings for nine weeks.
This year, there are 24,000 of those passes available, which cost $100, plus tax, and provide the unlimited pasta from Sept. 23 through Nov. 24.
The first 50 customers who complete their pasta pass transaction can upgrade for an additional $400 to get the deal for life. Those customers will be notified Friday if they received the lifetime deal.
The passes, which also include soup or salad and breadsticks, go on sale at 2 p.m. Thursday at pastapass.com.
In previous years, the passes have sold out within minutes.
The $500 lifetime pass, plus tax, would on average be paid off by the 45th bowl of pasta and can be used any day except when Olive Garden restaurants are closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, according to a press release.
Olive Garden, which is owned by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, has more than 850 locations.
