Grandpa, Tell Us About Buffets.....

Typical set up at a lot of get togethers too. The company picnic, sports days, weddings, funerals...

 

I've got a feeling we'll slip-slide back to the old status quo. But then maybe when a second wave hits we'll smarten up again? For a while? I'd like to relax, fall back to the old normal.

 

Yeah, let some other brave souls test the water first.

 

my parents lived off of the 'free' buffets in vegas for years. we enjoy them at the hotels on our trip to florida. but i have to wonder if we'll ever do any of these types of 'public' events again.

i don't mind not going back to the old normal. maybe we can create a better normal.

 

A few things will change. Remember unsealed jars, boxes and bins in the grocery stores, remember before seat belts? It is impossible for mankind to live in a sterile bubble...so pick your poison. The vulnerable should always take extra precautions, but it's amazing how the healthy human body handles life.

 

Every year in Wuhan they have an enormous pot luck festival, usually making it into the Guiness Book of World Records. They held it again, this year, in January:

Wuhan neighbourhood sees infections after 40,000 families gather for potluck | The Star

I'm guessing that's the last time they hold this pot luck event.

On the other hand, these days everyone's attention span is so short, maybe by next year people will go "Remember that coronavirus last year? That was crazy." "Huh? What are you talking about? Oh yeah, I remember now."

Well, at least we can hope we'll all be vaccinated and it will be gone and forgotten by then.

 

i'm just hoping our families and friends can get back together someday without endangering anyone's life

 

...assuming they find a vaccine you mean.

 

I live here, and of course buffets will be back.

The answer lies in one thing: Buffets are profitable. And if there's one thing this town loves, it's profit.

 

I like buffets too, however the sickest I have been in a long long time was after eating at a particular chain that specializes in buffets. It was a wonderful meal but just a few hours later I had a world class case of intestinal distress with vomiting and problems at the other end also. It was all gone by the next morning but till then I was very sick and didn't leave the house after getting home.

I wonder about just regular sit down restaurants where multiple people touch your food and when your food is bought to your table it is handled by the server who transports it through most of the restaurant. I can't help but wonder how their business in the future will look.

 

The bread pudding is extra runny tonight!

 

I live just down the road in Laughlin and I, too, think the buffets will be back but in a modified form that more resembles cafeterias. Silverware and napkins already at the table as place-settings like a normal restaurant. Single servings placed on small dishes (possibly disposable?) so patrons just take the dish and don't all have to touch a common serving spoon. Food stations like the slicing of prime rib and making of omelettes to order can still be done since here most of that was done as a touch-less exercise behind glass already. No public beverage dispensers; all drinks brought to the table or refilled by staff.

Free standing buffets in restaurants will likely go by the wayside in favor of full sit down service again. Restaurants that are 100% buffets will most likely be gone. An executive at Souplantation has already announced they don't see any way to profitably reopen and are shut down permanently.

EDIT ADD: A mask may be required any time you get up from the table to get food. No one allowed anywhere near the food serving areas without wearing one.

 

Ditto srellim234,
I see a change in how buffets serve their food. It will involve more overall labor, not to mention labor in constant cleaning, which, in turn raises the costs. Probably why Souplantation decided to just close.