Golden Corral and other buffets start reopening but with one big change — no buffets
The traditional buffet as you know it is gone, at least for now.
As many restaurants reopen throughout the country following coronavirus closures or restructurings, you’ll notice one major change at buffets: some will no longer have an actual buffet.
Many Golden Corral restaurants, which have been known for their sprawling self-service buffets with dozens of options, will change to a cafeteria-style model, according to RestaurantBusinessOnline.com.
“Stanchions are set up around the buffet areas and now-common floor markers tell customers where to stand as they line up for their food,” the website stated about Golden Corral’s new plans. “Company staff then services customers the food they request, eliminating the need for customers to touch utensils.”
Ben Taylor, the general manager of the Golden Corral in Joplin, Missouri, said there will be one-way entrance and exits in their restaurant and half of the tables have been taken away, according to KODE.
Those represent similar moves at the Golden Corral in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is also spacing its dining room tables six feet apart, KQ2 reported.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has recommended discontinuing “salad bars, buffets and beverage service stations that require customers to use common utensils or dispensers.” It has also asked restaurants to encourage spacing while in line.
Amanda Deering, a clinical assistant professor with the Department of Food Science at Purdue University, told Today that eating at a traditional buffet is a “calculated risk” right now.
Golden Corral stated on its website it “will continue to reinforce our rigorous cleanliness standards for guest touchpoints, perform employee temperature checks and incorporate additional hand sanitizing stations.”
Its website lists all of the restaurants that have reopened and how they will be configured.
All locations in North Carolina, where Golden Corral is based, are only offering to-go services. Twelve Florida locations are among the 15 Golden Corral restaurants still offering its traditional buffet service.
Food Management Partners, owners of Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet and Ryan’s Steakhouse, are “working on a new concept that will revolutionize the buffet industry,” according to Today. For now, many of the restaurants are offering to-go services, Restaurant Business reported.
CiCi’s Pizza and Pizza Hut, which offer buffet services, have not commented on their plans.
Garden Fresh-owned Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes is planning on shutting down its 97 national locations after filing for bankruptcy, according to the Washington Post. The chain offered buffet services for more than 40 years and its 4,400 employees will likely be out of jobs, the Post reported.
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 12:57 PM.