The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by cjd »

The Chinese buffet in my town is doing take out orders right now. I wonder how that works? Do they set up the buffet and when you place the order and they dish up what you want and bring it out to you? Or do they cook everything to order? It has a grill to order station as well so I guess they can still do that.

The other country buffet in my town is not open at all right now. I drove south of town last weekend but didn't notice if Golden Corral is or not. I'd think they would be offering take out at least. Other than those three don't know of any buffets in the county, except for small temporary ones that some restaurants set up. Salad bars I'm sure are all closed down or employee service only.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by Super S »

I noticed yesterday that our local Sizzler has reopened, but it is unclear what they are doing with the buffet. Apart from a banner saying they are open, the reader board out front has not been updated before the closures.

No word yet what is going on with the buffet at Izzy's, or if they are open.

The casinos that have reopened, to the best of my knowledge, have not reopened the buffets, and I am not sure what the plans are with those.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by storewanderer »

cjd wrote: May 30th, 2020, 7:52 am The Chinese buffet in my town is doing take out orders right now. I wonder how that works? Do they set up the buffet and when you place the order and they dish up what you want and bring it out to you? Or do they cook everything to order? It has a grill to order station as well so I guess they can still do that.

The other country buffet in my town is not open at all right now. I drove south of town last weekend but didn't notice if Golden Corral is or not. I'd think they would be offering take out at least. Other than those three don't know of any buffets in the county, except for small temporary ones that some restaurants set up. Salad bars I'm sure are all closed down or employee service only.
Chinese buffets can do take out a number of ways. They can just do plates/combos/various sized to go pails like a Panda Express or mall based Chinese place (which are basically displaying the food exactly like a buffet but where the employee serves you), the other thing that I have seen once or twice is they will have a per pound price and weigh the containers of food.

I wonder though if they have enough traffic to make sense to pre-make food or if they possibly switched to a cook to order model for the on demand to-go orders.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by SamSpade »

Here is how Izzy’s is retooling. It sounds a lot like what many restaurants are moving toward - cooking on demand and smartphone based menus.
https://www.oregonlive.com/dining/2020/ ... s-ban.html

Also some thoughts on if self serve fro yo is now officially dead.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: May 30th, 2020, 12:18 pm Here is how Izzy’s is retooling. It sounds a lot like what many restaurants are moving toward - cooking on demand and smartphone based menus.
https://www.oregonlive.com/dining/2020/ ... s-ban.html

Also some thoughts on if self serve fro yo is now officially dead.
I think self serve fro-yo could still work given the product comes out of an enclosed machine. They would need to go to some kind of dispensers for the toppings (similar to the "drop" bulk bins at WinCo or Whole Foods where product falls out the bottom, and dispensers for sauces similar to how a ketchup dispenser in a fast food place works). Not sure where that would leave toppings like berries, maybe those would have to be employee dispensed.

Self serve fro-yo if it all came from an enclosed dispenser isn't any different from self serve coffee/soda/frozen carbonated beverage at a gas station and that is all still allowed.

Might need to have an employee cleaning the dispenser handles between customers... would have been nice if they had done that all along.

Or these self serve fro-yo can just re-open (if allowed- and again if the gas stations can have these self serve drinks from enclosed dispensers why can't they dispense yogurt and toppings from enclosed dispensers...) doing things how they always did and see how many customers come back. They will either make it or they won't. Time will tell. Based on what I am seeing with packed restaurants, a complete lack of social distancing and other safety protocols and customers simply do not seem to care, I think that may be what happens.

It also would not be that hard to convert the self serve fro-yo into full service fro-yo with cup sizes and a per topping charge like the old fro-yo of the 90's.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: May 30th, 2020, 12:31 pm
SamSpade wrote: May 30th, 2020, 12:18 pm Also some thoughts on if self serve fro yo is now officially dead.
I think self serve fro-yo could still work given the product comes out of an enclosed machine. They would need to go to some kind of dispensers for the toppings (similar to the "drop" bulk bins at WinCo or Whole Foods where product falls out the bottom, and dispensers for sauces similar to how a ketchup dispenser in a fast food place works). Not sure where that would leave toppings like berries, maybe those would have to be employee dispensed.

Self serve fro-yo if it all came from an enclosed dispenser isn't any different from self serve coffee/soda/frozen carbonated beverage at a gas station and that is all still allowed.
How do they have them now? As you say, if gas stations can have coffee (which includes things like sugar bottles that people pick up to pour the sugar in, and cartons/bottles of milk you open to pour from like you would a carton at home) then whatever they put the toppings in wouldn't be that much different?
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by cjd »

The Golden Corral here has reopened apparently. They are offering a selection of meals for dine in or carry out. I hope it works for them, they donated hundreds of meals back in March, I assume so they wouldn't waste what they had on hand.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by cjd »

Golden Corral here has now gone from menu and take out to offering meals served by employees only.

The Chinese Buffet/Grill has reopened. From what I gather, you MUST sanitize, put on gloves and a mask upon entering, and wear a mask when you aren't at your table. Buffet is open but must wear a mask and gloves at it.

Sounds easier to me to just stay with takeout... This is a very clean and higher end place, only one anywhere in the area.

The other buffet here that had been open since the 1970s sadly will not be reopening... they did a poll to see if people would be interesting in eating at a buffet, most said not now! Sadly they couldn't seem to come up with an alternative plan. Feel bad for the employees and owner in his 80s now. He worked seven days a week at his restaurant.

Those are the only buffets anywhere near here.
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by BillyGr »

cjd wrote: July 30th, 2020, 7:22 pm The Chinese Buffet/Grill has reopened. From what I gather, you MUST sanitize, put on gloves and a mask upon entering, and wear a mask when you aren't at your table. Buffet is open but must wear a mask and gloves at it.

Sounds easier to me to just stay with takeout... This is a very clean and higher end place, only one anywhere in the area.
Had heard of similar things with other buffet type operations in different areas. I'd suspect it's just that people prefer the option to choose what they want vs. the pre set options of a takeout (that is, to be able to have a little bit of many things rather than a large container of one or two).
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Re: The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

Post by SamSpade »

The regional tribal casino is serving a "buffet" of sorts with a plated menu that has some 'all you care to eat' options. It's a bit lengthy and with all kinds of different pricing so I'm going to include the link rather than outline it here.
Buffet - Plated Menu
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