Restaurant buffets are appealing for a number of reasons. Among them is value: You can get a lot of food for a set price. Another is variety: A diner can choose from among many offerings, perhaps sampling a dish or two she might not try otherwise.
But the coronavirus epidemic has hit buffets hard. Relying on sneeze guards and the good manners and hygiene of other diners is particularly problematic now. In Arkansas, the state currently prohibits self-service operations, including salad bars, buffets and condiment bars. Nationwide chains like Golden Corral, which advertises its “endless buffet,” have, well, largely ended them.
Golden Corral has moved to “new service models” that “comply with variations in health department requirements across the country,” Lance Trenary, president and CEO of the North Carolina company, said in a video on the company’s website. These new models include a “we serve you buffet” that includes “endless helpings and eliminates the need for guests to touch serving utensils.”
Even in Las Vegas, the city that birthed the buffet, diners are no longer allowed to serve themselves.
But the buffet business model faced challenges even before COVID-19. “For broad-menu buffet concepts, the shutdown may well speed a complete shift away from that style of service that has been happening gradually for years,” the trade publication Restaurant Business reported in April. “The typical limited-service buffet concept saw unit count decline 10.3% last year, according to Restaurant Business sister company Technomic, while sales fell 9.1%.”
And buffets don’t account for a huge portion of the restaurant business. Buffet sales in the United States totaled about $5 billion last year, accounting for only 1% or so of total restaurant business, according to the NPD Group.
Nevertheless, buffets have legions of fans, and they’re certainly important to the restaurateurs who’ve devoted their lives to serving those fans. I talked to a couple of owners of restaurants known for their buffet-style dining. The takeaway? They’re hanging in there and hoping for the best.
Sami Lal is the owner of the Star of India in Little Rock, which he opened in 1993. Pre-pandemic, it offered both sit-down and buffet service. And even though dine-in service is now allowed in Arkansas, with restrictions, Lal is doing only delivery, takeout and curbside pickup. Lal is focusing on his lunch specials to go, similar in pricing to the popular lunch buffet, and family packs.
As far as sales now and before the pandemic, there’s no comparison, the gregarious Lal said. “But people support me. I love that,” he said, adding that this public support was a blessing to him and that he had not had to lay off any workers.
When and if a vaccine is produced or the pandemic has abated in some other way, Lal plans to reinstate his buffet.
Larry Carter and his wife, Tina, own five Larry’s Pizzas in central Arkansas: three in Little Rock, one in North Little Rock and one in Cabot. His brother-in-law, Larry White, the founder of Larry’s Pizza, owns the Larry’s Pizza in Bryant. They shut down their restaurants, which are renowned for their pizza buffets, a couple of days before the state ordered restaurant dining rooms closed.
“The original thoughts were everything was going to be closed for two weeks and then we’re back to normal,” Carter said. “Obviously, that didn’t pan out.”
So Larry’s Pizza did what so many other restaurants did: offered takeout, curbside pickup and delivery. “Our restaurants are a volume play,” Carter said. “They’ve got to have lots of people to make it work.” Carryout may be 20% of the business, but that’s “a far cry from 100.”
The Larry’s Pizzas have reopened their dining rooms, but are limited to offering table service at some of the restaurants or having customers order up front.
And even before the pandemic, Carter was considering changes to the business model because of increases in labor and food costs. “It costs a ton of money to do a good pizza buffet,” he said. “It’s very costly and the margins are super thin.”
These days, sales at the five restaurants Carter owns range from 40% to 60% of those of pre-pandemic days, he said.
The question comes down to “how much money do you want to put in that you’re not going to get back?” Carter said. Without more aid like the federal Paycheck Protection Program, “you’re just not going to see a lot of restaurants make it.”
Despite this, Carter thinks restaurant buffets will survive, in some form. “People, especially in Arkansas, people are going to go back to a buffet. But it’s how many people and what they’ll pay for it.”
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