Covid took its toll on buffet restaurants. Many did not survive the pandemic.
I will start with Golden Corral. Golden Corral has closed a number of its locations. Some were the result of Corporate's decsions. Others were the result of franchise holders who decided to close and never re-open their Golden Corral buffets. This is not to say that all Golden Corrals have closed. There are still Golden Corral buffets but they are much fewer and further between than they had been.
One of the Golden Corral's we had been to many times is confirmed, gone forever. This was the Golden Corral in Freehold, New Jersey. It was closed by its franchise owner. It had been listed by Golden Corral on their website as "temporarily" closed. I just learned that the building was sold and is being turned into a medical office facility. (As you will see as you read on this fate of buffet buildings is not that unusual.)
This has all has effected the Pennsylvania Dutch buffets in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While a few are closed, those that have remained open have cut their hours and some have cut the days that they are open.
One of the buffets I have written the most about in Lancaster over the years is Shady Maple Smorgasbord. They remain open for business but they now close every night at 7:00 pm. During the pandemic when they re-opened, they were open until 8:00 pm as always before but only on Friday and Saturday nights. Other weeknights were 7:00 pm closing. Not too long ago they changed the hours for Friday and Saturday to a 7:00 pm closing. They state on their website that they remain open after the last dinner sold at 7:00 pm for 45 more minutes. In the past, the buffet was out until almost 9:00 pm before they removed the food from the buffet servers.
Yoders Family Restaurant and Buffet in New Holland, PA remains open 6 nights a week but closes at 7:00 pm Monday to Thursday and at 8:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. This buffet has always started to remove the food from the buffet tables right at 8:00 pm in the past. It seems that now with the nights it closes at 7:00 pm - it is really closing at 7:00 pm and you have to be ready to go.
One of our favorite buffets in Lancaster has been the buffet at the Dutch Way supermarket in Gap, PA. The restaurant is still open BUT the buffet is gone. It is menu dining only. The restaurant is still open until 8:00 pm - just no buffet.
Dutch Way now has four locations with a new supermarket location in Ephrata, PA. This location does not have a full restaurant. It has a cafe with a limited menu. The only other of their locations that has had a buffet has been Dutch Way in Meyerstown, PA. Meyerstown is not in Lancaster County. It is further northwest and a considerable drive from Lancaster. They still offer a buffet in their restaurant. They have maintained their regular hours with an 8:00 pm closing time Monday to Saturday. On Friday and Saturday dinner you can add an all you can eat prime rib buffet upgrade for an additional $3.99. If it was not so far out of the way, this would be pretty good.
Bird-In-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord is closed on Mondays and the restaurant closes at 7:00 pm. In the past, when 8 pm was approaching the server would come to your table and announce that the buffet would be closing soon and if you wanted anything more you needed to go up to get it now. I assume this still takes place.
Miller's Smorgasbord - a buffet that at one time was a favorite and then decided it would get "fancy" and attracted a lot of tourists. They are also the most expensive of the PA Dutch buffets. Many of the buffets we prefer have more local people than they have tourists (perhaps with the exception of Shady Maple - but Shady Maple will often have Amish families dining there). Miller's is closed Monday and Tuesday and is open until 7:00 pm Wednesday and Thursday with Friday and Saturday until 8:00 pm. They are open Sundays to 7:00 pm (the only PA Dutch buffet open on Sunday).
Dienner's Country Restaurant has always had early closing hours for their restaurant and buffet. This very much a restaurant frequented by Amish and Mennonite local people. It is in Ronks, PA. As in the past, Monday through Thursday plus Saturday they close at 6:00 pm. Fridays they now close at 7:00 pm (in the past on Fridays the hours were until 8:00 pm). Other than Fridays in the past this was always just too early to get for dinner.
Litiz Family Cupboard is in northwest Lancaster, County. Up until two days ago this restaurant and buffet was going out of business. They were not able to re-negotiate their lease with the property owners and they were having problems hiring staff for the restaurant. They had announced their closing a month or so ago. They are a nice buffet with some very authentic PA Dutch items on tier menu and buffet including pig's stomach on one night a week. They have been able to renegotiate their lease and are currently hiring - they are not going to close down as announced. They are closed on Mondays and open until 8:00 pm as they have always been. The buffet is available on al open nights. The menu dining is only on certain days and this may change as they get themselves settled again.
The restaurant and buffet at Oregon Dairy is open but closed on Mondays. Tuesday through Thursday they close at 7:00 pm BUT prior to the winter they were closing at 8:00 pm. That may go back to 8:00 as the summer approaches. They are open until 9:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. They are open Sundays until 2:00 pm with a breakfast buffet and a soup and salad bar buffet.
Now - the sad news. Good N' Plenty Family Style Restaurant is one of the very long operating PA Dutch restaurants in Lancaster. County. This was all you can eat served in platters to a long table where you sat with others. The platters were passed around the table and when they were empty they would be refilled. This was a restaurant that I went to with my parents on trips to Lancaster many years ago. Due to the pandemic the owners decided to retire. They were not able to hire staff as the pandemic wound down and could not keep running the restaurant on their own. They had hoped to sell the restaurant as a going business to new owners who would continue the restaurant as it has always been. They received no offers to buy the business and they sold the building at auction. The building will no longer be a restaurant - and will become a community health and medical center (as noted with Freehold Golden Corral - all you can eat restaurant becomes a medical facility). This medical center will be a not for profit organization focused on the local community and it is in the heart of an Amish and Mennonite area.
Another buffet lost is the Hershey Farm Restaurant (and Hotel). This was located south of Ronks and north of Strasburg. A fire destroyed the restaurant and the complete complex that included a hotel and gift shop. The fire was the result of a torch setting the roof of the restaurant on fire during repairs. All buildings burned to the ground. News crews recorded the event and a number of fire companies responded to fight the fire including Amish men who were in some of the fire companies. This was not a favorite buffet but it is sad to see it go!
Going on to other areas where there have always been a lot of buffets. I have recently learned that there are no longer any buffets at the Las Vegas casinos. With slow business during the pandemic and what one report claimed - they were not making the casinos' money, they have closed.
Some of the Atlantic City casinos still have buffets. Prices are high.
The two casinos in Connecticut - Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun - no longer have their buffets open. Whether this is permanent or will change is unknown to me.
What buffets seem to have been able to remain. For the most part, the Asian buffets are still in business and reopened back to their regular hours. Prices have gone up - but prices of everything have gone up. We still go to a few of these- one fairly regularly.
So what is going on and why are all of these buffets closing or cutting back open hours and open days? The common answer each gives (and I have asked several with them not knowing who was asking) is that they cannot get employees to come back and work now that the pandemic is winding down. This makes no sense to me - but it is a reality.
I keep hoping - in particular with the Lancaster buffets that they will see as this coming Summer gets near that they will see that they need to go back to the usual 8:00 pm closing and reopen the days they are closing. This is a busy tourist area and they will get busy again and local people will be coming back as well this year. When visiting this area, with the number of people who typically dined at these restaurants - just two to three years ago - when you got there at 6:45 or 7:00 there were lines and you might not get seated until after 7:00 pm. With a 7:00 pm closing I see the need to be at the restaurant no later than between 5:00 to 5:30 pm. Local people who work don't get out of work until 5 - so if they want to go to the restaurant on a weeknight they rush home to get the family to travel then to the restaurant - it just does not work. And it will not work with visitors to the area either. The non-buffet restaurants are open. They have their regular hours. It is not like the buffets and all other restaurants are closing early. If they don't go back to their usual hours and days it is going to hurt them even more than the pandemic hurt them.
