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one of the first national chains goes out......
hillbille
Member Posts: 14,461 ✭✭✭✭
we have lost a few mom and pop restraunts since the virus hit this spring, noticed yesterday the local Golden Corral has a for sale sign on it, are the ones in your area closed also? wondering if it was just a local thing.....
Comments
I believe they went BR a few years ago with just several still open. Ours closed 6 months ago. For good reason.
It would have been almost impossible for any buffet-style place to stay open during the Great Covidiocy. We have two of them locally, one stayed open (and still is, somehow) but the other closed down and may or may not ever re-open.
Lots of major chains had to declare bankruptcy: Sizzler, IHOP, and Village Inn pop to mind immediately, and I know there are others.
Too bad I believe they are a NC based company.
Buffets are not my thing. I don't like going along and spooning out food some nasty gross person in front of me has been pawing. Even a salad bar is not on my high priority list.
And FCD you are right about the people that go to them and their spawn.
Our Pizza Hut closed their doors and took down their sign a couple of weeks ago.
It can be that way, FCD. At off-peak times it isn't nearly so bad. The food is not of prime quality, and it is prepared to be bland. But it is a whole lot better than what most people on the planet eat. I like GC because I can pick and choose what I want to eat, not because I can gorge myself. I usually make myself a small Caesar salad, have a cup of soup, and a piece of cornbread. Then a bit of fish and veggies like fried okra and pinto beans. I may allow myself a piece of fried chicken after that, with a dab of mac and cheese. On rare days, I have a few spoonfuls of ice cream with strawberries and crushed peanuts. Or their bread pudding, which is excellent.
That's a combo I can't really get at any other restaurant, but it suits me and includes some things I can't easily find at all in Utah except at GC (like fish and okra).
I went to a casino in Lake Charles LA one time. They had a buffet there and the wife and I ate at the buffet. It wasn't too bad until these huge people came in with their offspring. The Mom and Dad each went well over 400#'s the kids were about 10 and 12 and were an easy 200# each.
They shambled to a table and sent the kids to gather food for the parents because the parents were exhausted walking 100 yds from the car to the buffet. The kids came back with plates pilled high with every version of fried grub they had in the place. When they had supplied the parents with enough chow to last a few minutes(It would have fed a Platoon of Rangers) the kids hustled off to the dessert area and proceeded to fill their trays and plates with nothing but dessert. These 2 kids cleaned out some of the desserts and took a whole cherry pie which they did share with the parents.
I looked at my wife who was watching them like they were some exhibit in a zoo. I told her I was done and ready to go. We both left ASAP. I have never seen anyone eat like they did, elbows up and chow getting shoved in their mouth. The kids were the worst just shoving pie, cake, donuts, Cupcakes whatever into their face. They had frosting and stuff smeared all over.
Never again.
In a few years, our grandchildren will explain to their grandchildren what a buffet was.
Wasn't he one of those rich wall street tycoons.
I always thought he was wasted away in margarita ville!
I thought it was buffet but it might have been chiffarerobe. Or maybe a roll top desk.
The one In Gallipolis Ohio closed when the china virus hit. The sign said "CLOSED, See You soon". After a month or so the Logo was removed from the building the sign gone. I ate there from time to time. I thought the food was good, especially the pork chops and sliced roast beef.
I never have understood the eatin-out craze.
I have been convinced for years their food is of the lowest quality possible (profit margin) and to compensate for that it is loaded with artifical ingredients to enhance appearence, texture and flavor. Consquently a lot of diners are affected healthwise, but never connecting it to that slop.
Add the fact a large percentage of "public" food is conntaminated via poor hygene.
My wife and I have not eaten in a restaurant in several years. We pack our own snacks and feel much better for it.
An old friend, many years ago took his little boy with him to pick up some furnace parts at the hardware store.
On the way home, Edgar thought he would be nice and give his wife a night off from preparing dinner.
"Let's stop at McDonalds and pick up some burgers and fries" he said to the boy.
Back in those days child seats were not the law and his little son was standing beside him on the truck seat.
As they entered the well-lit McDonalds' parking lot, Edgar saw tears running down the little tyke's face.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
With a trembling lower lip the little guy cried, "Daddy, I don't want Die-wee-a!"
From out of the mouths of babes.
We have two nearby. The one in Murrieta, Kalifornia closed early this year & never reopened. The one in Lake Elsinore opened for a couple of weeks cafeteria style & then closed again. They were ready to open again but had to stop. I went to Laughlin the first of this month & ate in one in Kingman, Arizona cafeteria style.
I used to eat at Souplantation fairly often but they folded very quickly. Now I am stuck with one of their cards that still has some value left on it.
Back when the Army still had separate Basic Training and Infantry AIT, we went to Ft Knox with a convoy of chartered buses, and picked up 250 trainees to move them to Ft. Benning. We had "meal warrants"- the government had arrangements to direct pay for food at certain businesses. Along the way we stopped at a K&W cafeteria. Not fancy, but decent food. 250 18 year olds that had just finished 8 weeks of Basic.
See also "Plague of Locusts".
When we left, they closed. There was NO food left. I don't mean that they were out of some main course dishes. I mean EVERYTHING. I don't think there was an after dinner mint left. It was epic to watch.
the golden corrals close to here , Kinston ,Clinton and Smithfield have all closed .I know the Kinston location building is for sale ,unsure about the others .
Golden Corral went down hill when they quit putting garbanzo beans on the salad bar.
There are 7 in the Orlando, FL area that are still in business. I cannot say if any have closed though. I have never been to one.
We haven't eaten away from home since the china crud started. And I don't miss one little bit. 😁
Come visit Branson where all the Buffet's are still open for business. Covid be damned.
Oh yea the chocolate fountain.............I forgot about that.
Geez! What negativity!
Before Chinese flu, we took my mom to a Golden Corral near her home. It was clean, well stocked, and well staffed with courteous, efficient people. Good food too, but we haven't tried it since the plandemic started.
I like the Chinese buffet near our home, and it's open, but now the serving method has changed. Patrons are not allowed to help themselves anymore. When you come in, you are issued three Styrofoam plates a Styrofoam cup, and some plastic ware. When you want food, an employee takes your plate and goes with you to the buffet. You tell the employee what you want and he/she puts it on your plate. I really prefer to help myself, but I can live with it this way. On the plus side, I do tend to eat less.
My hometown never had a Golden Coral. We did get all of their commercials on the local channels and I always wished we would get one. Just a few Chinese places that had the all you can eat buffet's and once upon a time there was a Ponderosa Steak House and a Bonanza Steak house that both had very good all you can eat buffet's. We also still have a Big Boy that has a Sunday brunch buffet. Not sure if they are doing it currently during this Covid thing. I have not eaten out in nearly a year.
The very first time I ate at a dinner buffet was down in the metro Detroit area back in the early 70's. A Place called "Sveden House" that was decked out in Norse kind of décor crossed with Alpine Swiss. The servers wore those helmets with cow horns!!
Even back then nearly 50 years ago, a lot of very LARGE people frequented that place!