Everyone knows that when you’re at Olive Garden, you’re family.
But in the 44 years since the casual Italian-American restaurant chain was founded, few have embraced it with the ardor that Braden Sinclair has. In fact, way back in his Little League days, a coach named him “Breadsticks.”
“I had to go to Olive Garden for my birthday, ate too much, missed an entire game,” Sinclair tells WIRED. “One of my coaches decided that because of my initials being B.S., and my number being 11—which he said looked like breadsticks—and then that story, that I had to be called ‘Breadsticks’ for the rest of the season.”
He maintained that close relationship with the chain for many years, until, in 2019, he was rewarded with an almost unfathomable distinction: Sinclair is one of just 50 human beings on the planet to ever secure an Olive Garden Lifetime Pasta Pass.
Unlike the thousands of 13-week Never Ending Pasta Passes that the chain has offered at various intervals since 2014—this summer, a batch of 10,000, priced at $100 apiece, sold out within seconds—Sinclair’s heavy gold card bears no expiration date. It entitles him to as much pasta, toppings, breadsticks, and soup or salad as he cares to eat, for as long as the chain endures and he remains a loyal customer. (No delivery, though, to be clear. A pasta bowl so bottomless demands that one take a seat of honor for the dine-in experience.)
How exactly does Sinclair wield his kingly rights at Olive Garden? All is revealed on his new website, Lifetimepastapass.com, where he crunches the many numbers—both financial and dietary—on his many meals there. And, with a continually updated poll that decides what he should order the next time he drops in, it’s easily the closest you’ll ever get to having the lifetime pass yourself.
Braden Sinclair can eat unlimited pasta at Olive Garden anytime he wants.Photograph: Bonnie Durham
Sinclair nabbed his license to feast during a special promotion, when Olive Garden announced that the first 50 people to buy a temporary pasta pass would have the opportunity to upgrade it to the lifetime pass for an extra $400. To this day, Sinclair wonders if his timing was really that good or if the company deliberately selected him to receive the ultimate prize.
“I had sort of a joking relationship with their Instagram for years, just like chatting back and forth,” he explains, adding that it felt a little “weird” and something like “divine intervention” that he won given his coziness with the brand. An Olive Garden vice president of marketing FaceTimed him with the good news, he recalls.
Reactions to the card from Olive Garden employees range from awe to confusion. “They always take it back to the kitchen, show it to people,” Sinclair says. “Managers will come out and ask questions. The other end of the spectrum has been having to kind of prove it’s real, which is rare, and I totally understand. Like, if I managed a restaurant and someone came in with a gold card that said I don’t need to pay, I would also have questions.”