Olive Garden is bringing back its fan-favorite “Never Ending Pasta Pass,” the company announced this week.

Consumers can nab one of the 10,000 passes for $100, plus tax, on July 16 at 2 p.m. ET. Passholders are able to receive 13 weeks of unlimited pasta, sauces and protein toppings in addition to the chain’s unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks.

The product debuted in 2014 and was last offered in 2019.

An image of Olive Garden’s popular Never-Ending Pasta Pass offering. (Olive Garden)

OLIVE GARDEN PLANS NATIONWIDE ROLLOUT OF LIGHTER PORTIONS MENU FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL TESTING

“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,” said Jaime Bunker, Olive Garden’s senior vice president of marketing.

The promotion will only last until all 10,000 passes are claimed. The Never-Ending Pasta Pass isn’t available for redemption with to-go orders, but its in-restaurant redemptions are unlimited.

Olive Garden’s corporate parent, Darden Restaurants, in late June forecast full-year profit below Wall Street estimates and reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter sales, as higher input costs and increased marketing expenses weighed on margins amid persistent inflationary pressures.

The company, which also owns restaurants Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen and Chuy’s among others, now expects annual earnings per share from continuing operations between $11.10 and $11.35, below an expectation of $11.40 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.

A meal of spaghetti and meatballs served at an Olive Garden restaurant in Maryland. (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

It expects annual same-restaurant sales to grow 2.5% to 3.5%, the midpoint of which is above analysts’ estimates of 2.81%.

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Darden reported overall sales of $3.72 billion for the fourth quarter ended May 31, missing analysts’ estimate of $3.73 billion.

A sign hangs on the front of an Olive Garden restaurant on June 22, 2023, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Its total operating costs and expenses rose 10.7% to $3.20 billion in the fourth quarter from the prior year.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Slack pings can’t replace real face time. That’s why 85 percent of employees say off-sites deepen their connection to company goals 2024 Emburse report.

Budgets are rising, but according to Emburse, remote-first teams now choose smaller hub meet-ups that double as strategy sprints. According to Science of People, companies can earn £1 in the right retreat and earn £4–£6 back in engagement and ideas. Platforms like Team Retreats handle venues and travel so you stay focused on the “why,” not the logistics.

How we ranked each retreat idea

We promised you a top list, not a random grab bag. So before we get to the ideas, here’s the scoring lens we used.

First, we singled out five factors that shape a modern off-site. Creativity grabs attention, but cost flexibility keeps Finance on side. Impact measures how deeply the experience strengthens teamwork. Inclusivity confirms that everyone (remote staff, new parents, introverts) can join the fun. Finally, logistical ease shows how many late-night spreadsheets the planner has to survive.

To keep the process transparent, we assigned weights that mirror real-world decision making:

• Creativity & novelty 20 percent
• Cost flexibility 20 percent
• Team-building impact 25 percent
• Inclusivity & accessibility 15 percent
• Logistical ease 20 percent

Each retreat format scored one to ten in every factor, multiplied by its weight, then rolled into a single number. That number sets the order you’ll see next. Simple. No smoke, no mirrors.

Why bother with this rigor? Because a flashy idea that empties the budget or leaves half the team out is a bad investment. A balanced-score approach lifts ideas that deliver the 4-to-6 × return on spend researchers find in high-engagement teams.

Ready for the countdown? The retreat that tops the leaderboard comes first.

1. All-inclusive resort getaway

Picture the team swapping Slack pings for sea breezes. A resort retreat lifts everyone out of daily routines and into a space built for connection. Meals arrive without expense reports, Wi-Fi reaches the beach cabana, and no one spends the evening hunting for dinner reservations. The setting itself does the heavy lifting, freeing us to focus on strategy in the morning and snorkeling in the afternoon.

Cost control can surprise you. Off-season rates at regional resorts often dip below £200 per person for a two-night stay, especially when we negotiate a corporate bundle that folds in meeting rooms and one group activity. Those savings scale: larger head counts usually trigger bigger per-head discounts, so even a 100-person department can land a four-star venue at three-star pricing.

The team-building upside is real. Shared travel and unplanned conversations over buffet tacos strengthen psychological safety, the top predictor of team effectiveness according to Google’s Project Aristotle summarised by Science of People. Add a simple rule of “no work talk at dinner,” and fresh cross-functional alliances start forming before dessert.

Logistics still matter. We block rooms early, clarify dietary needs with the chef, and leave white space on the agenda so introverts recharge by the pool while extroverts try the zip line. If time is tight, a nearby countryside estate can deliver the same break-from-routine magic without the flights.

For planners short on hours, a specialist like Team Retreats can broker venues, buses, and budget-friendly contracts in a single dashboard. We keep ownership of goals; they handle the paperwork. Everyone wins, especially the team sipping sunset mocktails while the next big idea bubbles up.

2. Outdoor adventure “survival” retreat

Take the team off grid for a weekend and watch the office hierarchy fade faster than a phone signal. Whether we paddle across a calm lake, piece together a makeshift shelter, or follow a compass to base camp, genuine collaboration happens in real wilderness.

Nature does more than offer a pretty backdrop. Regular exposure to green space measurably lowers stress and burnout scores, a point corporate wellness experts highlight when recommending outdoor programs. Add challenge elements such as a low-ropes course or a fire-building contest, and colleagues uncover talents no slide deck could show.

Cost stays lean. Day-trip packages with certified guides often start near £50 per person, while a self-run campout on public land can cost less than Friday pizza. Swap hotel rooms for shared tents or a cosy bunkhouse and the largest spend becomes trail mix.

Safety and inclusivity stay central to the plan. We match activity intensity to fitness levels, hire professionals for technical sections, and always keep a warm cabin or gentle nature walk available. The goal is shared accomplishment, not survival-of-the-fittest bravado. By the time we gather around a campfire, the team has forged a bond that travels smoothly back into Monday projects.

3. Wellness retreat with a “biohacking” twist

Stress appears in every metric that matters: productivity, retention, even customer happiness. A wellness-first retreat tackles that pressure head-on while teaching habits employees keep.

Begin the day with sunrise yoga on a hotel rooftop or a quiet stretch in a converted conference room. Follow with a guided breath-work session where wearables track heart-rate variability in real time. Watching those numbers settle on screen turns mindfulness into a friendly contest and proves the technique works.

Cost scales well. A local instructor and healthy catering cost far less than round-trip flights. If the budget allows, move the experience to a countryside spa and add cold-plunge pools or sound-bath therapy. Either way, you send home employees who slept, stretched, and laughed together instead of grinding through another marathon workshop.

Inclusivity stays high because activities adapt: chair yoga for mobility issues and walking meditations for those who skip the mats. When the team heads home with a new relaxation habit instead of another branded tote, you’ve ticked the real ROI box—lower burnout and higher engagement that lasts beyond the retreat glow.

4. Volunteering & community impact retreat

Few activities bond a group faster than rolling up sleeves for a shared cause. Swap flip charts for paintbrushes and titles vanish; everyone becomes part of the crew refreshing a youth center or planting trees on a reclaimed farm.

Purpose fuels productivity. Oxford researchers found that organised volunteering programmes lift employee well-being and, by extension, on-the-job engagement. Teams leave proud of visible results, such as a repainted classroom or a cleared trail, and that pride converts into fresh energy back at the office.

Budgets benefit too. Most community projects ask only for materials or a modest donation, often under £30 a head. Transportation, packed lunches, and a bit of setup cover the rest. For distributed companies, simultaneous “Day of Service” events let regional pods support local charities, then share stories on a global video call.

Success hinges on fit. We survey employees on causes they value, partner with a vetted nonprofit, and design tasks for every ability level, from heavy lifting to creative mural design. Cap the day with a casual picnic where the beneficiary shares the project’s long-term impact. The applause you hear is not just for them; it is your team realising what they can accomplish together.

5. Hackathon retreat

Nothing sparks camaraderie like a ticking clock and a bold challenge. A hackathon retreat turns creativity into a full-contact sport, pushing cross-functional teams to prototype fresh ideas in a day or two of focused effort.

Leave laptops on, but leave routine at the door. We start with an inspiring brief, such as “invent a feature that delights customers in under 24 hours,” then mix engineers, marketers, and ops pros into small squads. Hierarchy melts when a junior designer’s whiteboard sketch saves hours of coding and the VP handles the midnight snack run.

Costs stay friendly. The venue could be the office re-skinned with beanbags and mood lighting, or a rented makerspace for £20–£50 per person, pizza included. Prizes do not need to be lavish; brag-worthy trophies and a promise to fund the winning idea’s next sprint set hearts racing.

Impact lands on two fronts. First, genuine product seeds emerge; Facebook’s Like button started this way. Second, the shared “we built this together” high lingers long after laptops close. Back at work, teams communicate faster because they already solved a tough puzzle side by side. That is return on investment you can feel.

6. Themed experience or game retreat

Turn teamwork into play and watch barriers fall. Whether we stage a city-wide “Amazing Race” or transform a rented hall into an after-hours escape room, a single storyline draws colleagues into shared problem-solving that feels like recess, not training.

Games accelerate trust. Laughter releases oxytocin, nudging people to share ideas more freely the next morning. Pair mental puzzles with light physical challenges—such as decoding a cipher, launching a paper-airplane relay, and cheering from the sidelines—so every personality type shines. Randomly assigned squads guarantee cross-department mingling without awkward icebreakers.

Budget is yours to steer. A DIY scavenger hunt costs little more than printed clues and a quirky trophy. Prefer turnkey? Specialist facilitators build immersive mysteries for about £40 per participant, props and on-site “game masters” included. Either route costs less than flights and hotel nights.

Logistics come down to pacing. We keep activities varied and rounds short to maintain energy, add rest breaks for conversation, and finish with a debrief on “what strategy won and why.” The insight sticks because the lesson arrived wrapped in adrenaline. By Monday, colleagues greet each other with inside jokes from the “case of the missing CEO,” proof that the connection lasts beyond the scoreboard.

7. Micro-offsites for hybrid teams

When a workforce spans cities and time zones, hauling everyone to one venue can drain both budget and energy. Enter the micro-offsite: shorter, regional meet-ups that happen the same week under a shared theme.

Think of it as a relay race. London, Chicago, and Singapore hubs each spend a Friday on local team-building, maybe a museum scavenger hunt or a volunteer morning. Mid-afternoon, screens pop up and every hub joins a live company-wide finale where highlights, photos, and quick wins fly across continents. People feel part of a single story without crossing oceans.

The math is friendly. Five one-day events of twenty people rarely equal the flight and hotel bill for one mega retreat. Smaller groups also mean venues are easier to book, dietary needs simpler to meet, and introverts less overwhelmed.

Culture benefits multiply with frequency. Instead of one “see-you-next-year” blowout, squads reconnect every quarter, keeping rapport fresh in a hybrid world. In fact, high-performing companies now host an average of 2.8 offsites annually to sustain belonging across remote teams, according to Emburse.

Execution comes down to rhythm. We appoint a local champion in each hub, share a common agenda framework, and leave room for regional flair. A global Slack channel hums throughout the day so teams trade selfies and high-fives in real time. By sunset, we have deepened bonds, honored family commitments, and saved a pile of carbon miles in a single coordinated sprint.

8. Family-inclusive retreat day

Sometimes the best way to deepen team bonds is to invite the people who cheer us on from home. A family day turns the retreat into a mini festival where kids chase bubbles, partners meet the faces behind email signatures, and colleagues discover they both own Labradors named Luna.

The payoff is practical and emotional. Parents skip the scramble for childcare, younger staff avoid travel-cost dread, and everyone sees one another as three-dimensional humans. That empathy follows us back to work; it is tougher to snap in email at the dad whose toddler just painted your face with glitter.

Budgets sit in the middle lane. A park permit, barbecue catering, and a few bounce houses usually land between £30 and £60 per guest. Layer in simple games such as egg-and-spoon races or a pets’ talent parade, and entertainment takes care of itself. For companies already running a larger off-site, make family day the finale so locals join easily while travellers extend their stay.

Planning hinges on inclusivity. We offer activities for all ages, set up shade and quiet corners, and keep menus allergy-aware. A quick welcome circle lets employees introduce their crew: “This is Maya, the real CEO of my evenings.” Laughter breaks, barriers fall, and the wider support network feels seen and appreciated.

The long-term effect is loyalty that sticks. When families feel the company values them, employees stay invested too. That sense of shared village may be the most sustainable perk we can offer.

At-a-glance comparison

We covered a lot of ground, so here is a quick dashboard you can skim before pitching options to your leadership team. The scores reflect the weighted criteria we shared earlier; £ symbols show the relative spend for a basic two-day version of each idea.

Conclusion

Treat these numbers as conversation starters, not commandments. Your perfect choice depends on goals, head count, and appetite for adventure. One trend is clear: meaningful bonding does not need a massive budget.

The sun was shining on the Fed chairman, Kevin Warsh, today as he gave his first Congressional monetary report on a day when the consumer price index unexpectedly fell for the first time in six years. And that takes a near-term Fed rate hike off the table.

As Mr. Warsh said, it’s too soon to declare “mission accomplished,” but he vowed to defeat inflation and get monetary policy right during his appearance before the House Financial Services Committee. As he put it: “The 63 months of inflation above target has been an unfair burden. It has been a tax on the American people and businesses. We plan on getting rid of that tax if that means we need a regime change in policy and we need new consideration of practices, some of which have been working, some of which haven’t, that’s what we aim to do”

The new Fed chairman has been in office only two months, but energy, precious metals, and farm commodity prices have already started trending lower. Mr. Warsh intends to be a reformer at the central bank, and has commissioned a number of high-level task forces that will report later in the year on “regime change,” as he puts it. 

Yet one thing he understands better than his predecessor is that inflation is a monetary policy issue caused by bad choices and a lack of resolve to restore price stability and presumably restore the 2 percent target. Futures markets took at least one Fed rate hike off the table after the benign CPI report. There’s still another rate hike priced in perhaps some time this autumn, but I doubt it.

When you look at the core numbers excluding food and energy, which is what many Fed officials are focused on, the monthly numbers are coming down steadily, and even the 12-month change is only 2.6 percent. The topline number for all items was lower in May than in April, and in June it actually fell by four-tenths of one percent.

Of course energy overall and gasoline in particular drove the index down. But it’s also noteworthy that goods prices have been nearly flat for a year, excluding food and energy. The much-heralded tariff inflation which would have shown up in goods prices really never came to pass, or if it did, was only momentarily.

Meanwhile the topline also dropped by 1.1 percent in June. Services were flat in June. New and used car prices were down. And Mr. Warsh is right to tell the public that the job of price stability is not yet complete. Yet he also knows that when he credibly gets back to 2 percent or less inflation, then interest rates will come down of their own weight and they will stay down.

What’s more, he painted an optimistic picture of the economy with particular reference to booming business investment. In other words, he again is arguing that you can have strong economic growth with low inflation. And he stuck to his guns on the positive impact of all manner of advanced tech investment, from AI through quantum computing, space, and who knows what else. You know what? When you listen to Mr. Warsh and see what the early results are — even a Fed chairman can have his cake and eat it too.