Post-pandemic buffets

One of my guilty pleasures when it comes to an inexpensive lunch is Jumbo Buffet on Hurstbourne. I passed by the other day and saw they were back open, so we stopped in for lunch today. I thought buffets would be a thing of the past but they seem to be dealing with it. It looks like they've scaled it back a bit and eliminated the Mongolian grill station, but the buffet is still in business. It's bring your own mask, but they issue everyone disposable gloves upon entry.

The people there are very friendly and I think the food is pretty good for a buffet, so I'm glad to see them back open. The lady working the register thanked us for coming in and said it was still very slow.

On a side note, for some reason my wife last week wanted to pick up lunch from Panda Express. I think it had to do with a commercial they had been running. She had never been and I may have visited the location at U of L once or twice, but our takeaway was that any strip mall Chinese takeout place in town is light-years better than Panda.

Golden Corral has 250 locations open around the country, tho none in Louisville. They have two different set-ups they are testing, depending on the location. Across the river they cut back the number of tables to 50%, and have single-use gloves and paper towels spread all over for customers to use, along with roving staff to be sure all going up to the buffet are using them. The other option has their employees serving everyone. Not sure if/when they'll re-open here.

Interesting idea from Angio's Italian Restaurant, on Blankenbaker Parkway:

Boxed Buffet starting Monday July 6th! 11am-2pm every weekday! Pizza by the slice, cheese sticks, and cinnamon sticks! All you can eat $10.99 with a drink! We can’t wait to see you! Masks are required when going through the buffet, please respect the use of social distancing on the floor.

All food will be in boxes with marked labels. We will have salads, pizza slices, bread sticks, cinnamon sticks. You come up and grab what you want, once you touch it, it’s yours!

https://www.facebook.com/angiositalianrestaurant/

I doubt the public is ready for the Angio's idea...but what do I know!

Made a return visit to Jumbo on Friday and they've moved to a system where you point to what you want and they fix the plate. Aside from us, there was only one other table at Friday lunch.