Posted on 12/21/2021 2:26:19 PM PST by mylife
Olive Garden is known for a few things. Namely, its never-ending offerings, like soup, salad, breadsticks, and pasta. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end—even those that are supposed to be never-ending. Olive Garden's incoming new CEO revealed that the restaurant may never bring back its never-ending pasta bowl promotion.
According to Business Insider, the deal, which gets you a bowl of pasta with endless refills for $10.99, was one Olive Garden would roll out periodically. Customers could enjoy as much pasta as they could stomach under the promotion, as well as unlimited breadsticks and salad. For an extra price, they could add accouterments to their dishes like shrimp or meatballs.
The promotion has reportedly not been rolled out since 2019, and, according to CEO Ricardo Cardenas, may not return.
"We don't know if or when we'll bring it back," he said on the call, citing a "negative impact."
Business Insider noted that the promotion succeeded in drawing in customers, but did not help the chain increase profit margins. Basically, the promotion was a hail Mary that Olive Garden would deploy in times of low sales. Currently, however, sales are up at the chain over pre-COVID-19 levels, as well as ahead of the last time it offered its never-ending pasta bowl promo.
Long story short, Olive Garden is trying to "reduce dependency" on flashy promos like this one to draw folks in, according to Cardenas. However, those that come for the never-ending salad and breadsticks need not fear. Olive Garden will not be doing away with its bottomless first course. Phew!
(Excerpt) Read more at thrillist.com ...
Any accountants here? I bet they lose money on the never ending food at that price.
Its very easy and keeps kids occupied, we used to make pasta every week.
One small step for American health...
Boy have I seen some stories!
Ohhh it’s just one wafer thin mint....
We all have, dat aint yo poke chop! dats my poke chop! it’s mo angular!
stabby stabby time ;)
Stacy Abrams is apoplectic with piggy rage.
My own Father once hurled a bowl of mashed taters at the wall cuz they were “to lumpy”
Then made us eat Lima beans and ham every week!
Madness! :)
I’ll probably never make it there but I at least have a great Italian and Greek place on the other side of city more or less.
OK! ;-)
It’s crap food anyway.
I’ve been once and it was the late 80’s.
Rigazzi’s on The Hill in St. Louis used to have all you can eat pasta. Perfect for hungry college students. You could tell when the waiter was trying to put you away—he would bring out a heaping platter of pasta.
Olive garden is grossly overrated. I make WAY BETTER spaghetti, and a lot more of it for cheaper. Brown the meat, dice and sautee the onions and diced garlic, preferably yellow onions, season all that on medium low for a while to cook out the fat, boil the spaghetti, add sauce to the meat, I like Prego if I’m feeling lazy with oregano, a little bit of garlic salt and whatever else you like, by the time you’re done screwing around with the meat sauce, drain the noodles and stick them in a casserole dish, dump the meat sauce on top, mix it a bit and cover the top with about an ounce of Gouda cheese, and bake it on low heat in the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt.
Not to toot my own horn or nothing but my spaghetti is pretty mean
If you can't make it overt there but live in Southern California, you can get good pasta at Basilico's Pasta e Vino in Huntington Beach. Just make sure you don't wear a mask, because masks are prohibited.
“ Customers could enjoy as much pasta as they could stomach….”
Worded correctly. Not a big Olive Garden fan, but their soup & salad deal is good.
Olive Garden is horrendously bad and overpriced to boot…
Drop $70 to feed 4 people not including tip for microwaved crap
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