Sold out! Pasta for life at Olive Garden

Olive Garden has put a price tag on a lifetime’s worth of pasta.

Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Pass sold out in a second on Thursday, and 85 percent of buyers opted in for the chance to upgrade to the $500 lifetime pass, available this year for the first time.

The traditional Never Ending Pasta Pass costs $100 for nine weeks of unlimited pastas and sauces from Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Bowl menu. The deal also comes with unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks.

Choices include fettuccine, gluten-free rotini pasta, creamy roasted garlic sauce and marinara sauce. Grilled chicken or vegetable toppings are extra.

Never Ending Pasta Passes went on sale Thursday at 2 p.m. and Olive Garden suggested interested diners enter an online waiting room five minutes earlier to prepare. The passes have sold out in seconds in the past.

There are 24,000 Never Ending Pasta Passes available. Last year, the chain offered 23,000 of them.

The big change is that for an additional $400, the first 50 Pasta Pass holders had the opportunity to upgrade to a lifetime pass within 48 hours after receiving an e-mail alerting them of their eligibility. Olive Garden will work its way through the list of early pass buyers until all 50 are taken.

Olive Garden said most buyers wanted the chance to extend the perk for the rest of their lives.

Guests have to be 18 years old to purchase a lifetime pass and although it never expires, the menu may change occasionally.

The Never Ending Pasta Bowls menu launches on Sept. 23. For Never Ending Pasta Pass holders, the unlimited perk lasts through Nov. 24. Only the person whose name appears on the card can use an Olive Garden pass.

In the past, Olive Garden has offered a full-year pasta pass and a Pasta Passport that took guests on an eight-day trip to Italy.

Olive Garden announced the lifetime pass with a series of clues on the restaurant’s Facebook Page. Its followers are already talking about the meals they’ll enjoy.

“Matt for a mere $2,500 we can all eat OG every night for the rest of our lives,” read one comment. “At a dollar a box of pasta it’s paid for itself in less than 7 years.”