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All-you-can-eat buffets are slowly returning to normal, especially in Las Vegas, where reopened locations are seeing a massive rise in customers. However, will nationwide buffet chains ever rebound? The situation remains murky...
Buffets Struggle During Coronavirus
Daily Las Vegas News
Of course, over a year ago, every self-service buffet closed in 2019 due to the coronavirus. Now, however, some buffets have returned to normal, especially in Las Vegas. Currently, five have reopened in Sin City: The Wicked Spoon Buffet at Cosmopolitan, Garden Buffet at South Point Casino, Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace, MGM Grand Buffet, and Circus Circus Buffet. Meanwhile, the Wynn Resort will reopen its buffet on July 1st.
However, things have changed considerably. In addition to enhanced cleaning procedures, most require a reservation. As Tony Curtis, founder of Las Vegas Advisor, explained, Vegas buffets are far from returning to normal. "We're a long way away," he said. But Curtis says that casinos are working hard to find a way to keep buffets open. "Vegas was the buffet capital without question. It was a big part of our identity," Curtis explained.
While many casinos are working hard to bring back their world-famous buffets, others are thinking about closing them entirely. "It's going to be a focus on slot machines and table games, our primary business. We'll have several restaurant options," Frank Fertitta, CEO of Station Casinos, the operator of 20 properties in southern Nevada, said. "We will not have a buffet. And I don't want to get ahead of ourselves on it."
While Las Vegas slowly returns to business as usual, nationwide buffets, like Golden Corral or Home-Town Buffet, are facing much more significant challenges...
They Might Never Return
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While almost all nationwide chain buffets have remained closed since the pandemic began, some of them immediately pivoted. Golden Corral, for example, started reopening with new rules. "We are prepared to temporarily provide our guests an enjoyable Golden Corral experience delivered in new ways, including cafeteria-style, where we serve you on our buffet lines, or family-style, where our servers bring an endless buffet of Golden Corral favorites to your table," the company explains on its website.
John Haywood, chief executive officer of Golden Corral's parent company Garden Fresh Restaurants, says that people should expect massive changes to the buffet industry, even after restrictions disappear. "I really do not believe that most really understand what is about to happen. As a buffet concept, we are just the 'canary in the mine shaft,' as the saying goes," he said.
To prove his point, VitaNova Brands, the owner of Furr's Buffet, Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, and Ryan's Buffet, has shut down all its buffets and has yet to reopen them. Still, "the company plans to reopen as many Furr's as possible, contingent upon pandemic restrictions and landlord negotiations," a spokeswoman for VitaNova Brands told Nation's Restaurant News.
So, it seems that while many self-service buffets will reopen in Las Vegas, nationwide chains will likely never return to pre-pandemic levels...
