Olive Garden’s Never‑Ending Pasta Pass Is Back (and a Simple Money Update)

What’s the Big News?

Olive Garden – a restaurant where you can eat Italian‑style food like pasta, breadsticks, and salad – is bringing back a super popular deal called the “Never Ending Pasta Pass.”
This is a special ticket that lets you eat as much pasta as you want for a long time.

Also, the company that owns Olive Garden (called Darden Restaurants) recently shared how its money situation is looking. And there was a short TV chat about bigger money topics like smart computers (AI), prices going up, and interest rates. We’ll cover all of that in a kid‑friendly way!

How the Pasta Pass Works (Step‑by‑Step)

If you want one, here’s what to do:

1. Mark your calendar for July 16 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
2. Be ready to buy – only 10,000 passes will be sold, and they will be gone when all are claimed.
3. Pay $100 plus tax to get a pass.
4. Enjoy 13 weeks of endless pasta, sauces, protein toppings, plus the usual unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks – but only when you sit and eat inside the restaurant.

Important Callout:
The pass is not for take‑out or to‑go orders. It’s only for eating at the table inside Olive Garden. Once the 10,000 passes are sold, the deal stops!

What Exactly Do You Get?

With the pass, you can eat:

• Unlimited pasta (all the noodles you want)
• Unlimited sauces and protein toppings (like meatballs or chicken)
• Unlimited soup or salad
• Unlimited breadsticks

The deal lasts for 13 weeks (that’s about three months!).

A Little History

• The Pasta Pass first appeared in 2014.
• It was last offered in 2019.
• A person named Jaime Bunker, who is Olive Garden’s senior vice president of marketing (think of her as the head of telling people about the brand), said:
  

  “Bringing it back felt like the right way to recognize the loyalty of so many guests who have kept it top of mind all these years.”
  In simple words: Many fans kept asking for it, so they brought it back to say thank you.

Meet the Parent Company: Darden Restaurants

Olive Garden is owned by a bigger company called Darden Restaurants Inc.
Darden also owns other restaurants like Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen and Chuy’s.

Recently (in late June), Darden told everyone how its money looked for the year. Here’s the simple version:

The Stock (Tiny Ownership Slips)

They have a “ticker” (a short code) called DRI on the stock market (a place where people buy/sell small ownership pieces of companies).

This means one share (a tiny piece) cost about $195.74, and it went down 95 cents (about half a percent) that day – a very small drop.

Profit and Sales Expectations

• Darden guessed its full‑year profit would be a bit lower than what money experts on Wall Street (a street in New York that stands for the big money world) thought.
  • Company expects to make $11.10 to $11.35 per share (profit divided by ownership pieces).
  • Experts expected $11.40 per share.
• They said sales at restaurants open a while (same‑restaurant sales) would grow by 2.5% to 3.5%. The middle guess is 3%, which is a tiny bit higher than the experts’ guess of 2.81%.
• For the three months ending May 31 (called the fourth quarter), total sales were $3.72 billion (that’s 3,720 million dollars). Experts thought it would be $3.73 billion – so they missed by a hair.
• The company’s costs to run things (like food and ads) went up 10.7% to $3.20 billion compared to last year.
• Why? Because input costs (the price of ingredients and supplies) and marketing expenses (money spent to tell people about the food) rose, while prices in the economy kept creeping up – that’s called inflation (things cost more over time).

Quick Money Chat on TV (From a Featured Video)

A money expert named Ryan Lynch from a company called Zelniker Dorfman Private Wealth appeared on a TV show called Mornings with Maria. He talked about:

• How AI (smart computer programs) might be helping the stock market go up.
• Q2 earnings – that’s how much profit companies made from April to June (the second quarter of the year).
• Inflation (prices going up).
• What might make the Federal Reserve (the big bank boss of the U.S.) change interest rates (the extra cost you pay when you borrow money).

We included this so you have the full picture from the original news page!

Summary

• Olive Garden is reviving its Never Ending Pasta Pass on July 16 at 2 p.m. ET for $100 + tax, limited to 10,000 lucky buyers, giving 13 weeks of endless pasta, soup/salad, and breadsticks inside the restaurant only.
• The pass first launched in 2014 and returned now due to fan love.
• Parent company Darden Restaurants shared that its profit and sales guesses are slightly below expert expectations, while costs are up because of inflation and advertising.
• Its stock ticked down a tiny bit (DRI $195.74, ‑0.48%).
• A TV segment also touched on AI, earnings, inflation, and possible interest‑rate moves by the Fed.

FAQ (Your Questions Answered)

1. What is the Never Ending Pasta Pass?
It’s a special $100 ticket (plus tax) that lets you eat unlimited pasta, sauces, toppings, soup/salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden for 13 weeks.

2. When and how can I buy it?
You can try to buy one on July 16 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Only 10,000 are made, and they sell until gone. You must use it inside the restaurant – no takeout.

3. Why did Darden’s money report sound a bit disappointing?
They said their profit per share would be $11.10–$11.35, just under the $11.40 experts hoped for. Also, sales missed by $0.01 billion, and running costs rose 10.7% because food and ads cost more during inflation.

4. What does “inflation” mean in this story?
Inflation is when prices for everyday things (like pasta ingredients) slowly go up, so companies spend more to make the same food.

5. What was that TV video about?
A money helper named Ryan Lynch talked on morning TV about smart computers (AI) possibly lifting the market, company profits for April–June, rising prices, and whether the U.S. central bank might change borrowing costs.