WEBVTT - How Buffets Work 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:14.280 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.439 There's Charles w Chuck, Brian out there. Jerry just left 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.280 to go get some food. We're guessing at a buffet, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.680 although probably not. I don't think she actually is going 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.480 to a buffet, Chuck. I can actually hear Jerry laughing 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:29.320 for the first I can't do. I don't know if 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.840 that's going to make it in the final lightit but 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.120 it was creepy and otherworldly, disembodied Jerry laugh kind of sinister, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.960 and it's almost like we're in the same room again. Almost, man, 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:44.239 almost someday less than a year. I'm thinking less than 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.360 a year. Yeah, let's just call it that. And we're 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:50.840 talking about hitting the road again, huh eventually. Yeah, I mean, 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.240 if things go great, maybe next fall. But if they don't, 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.800 then uh, the next year we talk about stuff way 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:03.280 or yeah, I mean those theaters are going to be jamming. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.360 That's that's the big thought is that when things truly 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.360 get better, everyone and their people have never even performed live. 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.680 We're going to book theaters to get up on stage. 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:13.760 It's gonna be a lot of fun. There's gonna be 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.080 a lot of pent up energy to be released right 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.840 in our direction. Why talk about an easy crowd, man, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:25.440 I can't wait for that. So, speaking of talking about things, chuck, 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.440 great segue, because it turns out we're talking about something today, 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:36.560 and specifically we're talking about Buffet's. That's right, Jimmy, buffet 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.760 Do you have good I hadn't even thought about that, 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.080 good joke? Uh, do you have good memories of buffets 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.200 from when you were a kid or an adult? We 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:51.400 certainly went to Buffet's more than a little bit growing up, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.360 and it kind of jibed with everything, um that our 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:01.360 household believed in, which was value for the dollar. Sure. Um, 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.200 I learned from my dad that you should eat until 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:07.480 you were physically uncomfortable and then eat a little bit more. 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:11.799 Oh that's good. I didn't have good food. Uh, examples 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.960 from my dad. And uh, you know, my mom has 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:21.079 been known to stuff a roll or two in her purse. No, sure, dude, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:26.040 she's she falls under the section titled problematic customers. Yeah, 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:27.440 and I think, boy, I hope she didn't hear that. 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.400 She's gonna be so mad. But it was usually under 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.880 the guys of like, well, I don't feel like I 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:34.840 came in that hungry, so I didn't eat as much 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.040 as I actually do. Awesome, Well, I'll make you feel 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:40.640 a little bit better. My mom, I don't think ever 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.080 once in her entire life bought candy at a movie theater. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.240 She would always bring in those bag of Bolt candies 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:51.480 and her oversized giant nineteen eighties purse. Yeah, and it 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.840 was always great, like she always had the good candy. 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.360 But you know, if you wanted like snow caps or something, 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.640 so well, I will say this, I haven't been to 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.320 a book a I was really trying to figure out 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.400 the last time and I don't know, man, it like 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.160 it literally may have been twenty years ago in Las 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.240 Vegas or something, a town that I do not enjoy 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.680 going to. But I think maybe I can't think of 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.800 any time I used to go to a this sort 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.720 of super Asian buffet where when my sister and her 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.519 husband lived in North Carolina with them, and it was 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.119 one of those weird ones that had like this great 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:32.880 Chinese food but then like pasta and seafood and it 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.280 was but not like in the in the Asian style 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:40.360 of seafood, right right, Yeah, that's stuff. That's a typical 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.840 Chinese buffet. They have lots of Chinese food, but they 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.560 have everything, and they'll have like eight different buffets all 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:51.280 in one. Is it like that? Uh? Yeah? But actually 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.000 now I do remember the last time I went to 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.080 a buffet. I did go to one of those KFC buffets, 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.320 but it had to have been more than fifteen years ago. 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:01.680 Was that the one in Valdosta? That's the only one 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.640 I know about now? And I remember I literally went 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.040 because I saw it on the sign said the buffet, 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:09.960 and I was like, I've heard of these, I gotta 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.080 do it. Yeah. Well it's still around. There's one on 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.360 exit eighteen on I seventy five and Valdosta, Georgia. There's 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:21.880 a bona fide KFC buffet. I can personally attest to 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:23.800 its existence. When was the last time you went to 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.919 a buffet? I hadn't thought about it, and I was 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.279 thinking about it while you were talking. Um, I was 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.839 listening to you as well. But UM, do you remember 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.920 when we did that that UM live catastrophe in Erie, Pennsylvania. 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.919 Oh sure, yeah, yeah yeah. So the next formed at 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.000 a school in front of like nineteen people, Yes, yeah, 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.160 and like ten of them had to be there for 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:50.680 like course credit. I think, um the the the next day. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.280 So there's airplanes fly in and out of Erie a 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:58.080 couple of times a week, and um the the the 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.400 flight that I happened to have didn't leave to late 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:05.040 the next afternoon. So I went and saw um Oh 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.480 Cure for Wellness I think was the movie I saw 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:08.800 in the theater, and then I went and ate it 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.760 one of their local buffets, and Erie stayed on an 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.800 extra day. Huh, an extra two thirds of a day, 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.039 very very long two thirds. I think I drove and 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.600 flew out of another town. You did, you did, and 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.960 I hadn't. I didn't have that foresight. But um but 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:26.280 before that, I have to say, one of my favorite 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.440 buffets that I went to sometimes was pana Har. You 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:34.400 remember Panahar over on Beuford Highway. Sure late pana Har. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.520 It just shut down, I believe in the last few months. 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.599 I don't think I ever went there. Was it Indian buffet. 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:45.120 It was Bangladeshi, you know, like the average American would 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.880 just be like, oh, good Indian food, but it was 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.760 just magical. There was something that they put in the 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:52.599 food that made everything really good. But they would do 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.000 a lunch buffet and it was fantastic. I bet you 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.800 would pay for that, though, I would pay a lot, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:06:00.919 especially now that it's gone under. Oh, I see what 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:02.520 you mean. You know what I mean. No, they had 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.799 very good food. It was well made too. It didn't 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.000 just taste good, it was like well well made, like 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.640 they had some hundred and fifty year old grandmother back 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.560 in the kitchen overseeing things. Yeah. I don't mean that 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.400 it would be made bad. But Indian food is the 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.839 love and vain of my existence. I love it so much, 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.760 but it Yeah, it doesn't get to me that bad. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.800 But that's uh, that's part and parcel with buffet's though, Chuck, 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:27.520 it might not just be Indian food. It could just 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:29.720 be the fact that it's a buffet, because buffets make 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.440 you super duper sick. All right. So should we talk 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.320 about the smorgas board, Yeah, because that's where the whole 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.360 thing originated. Yeah, I was. I did not know the 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.279 origin of that word, So it's kind of cool. In 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:46.240 Scandinavia in the thirteenth century, they had Smorgese boards, but 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:51.359 it was the Smortgage boards and brand Vince boards, And 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:53.320 it sounds a little more like if you were to 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.560 put out like a nice meat and cheese tray with 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:02.000 some butter and spreads, uh, maybe little smoked fish. But 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.400 the key here is vodka on that brandvet's board, right, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.840 So that's what everybody was there for. But they would 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.840 lay out these spreads for like travelers who came to visit, 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:15.400 guests who came over long distances, and they'd be like, here, 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.960 restore yourself with these, you know, the spread of light food. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.240 And over time the Swede said, you know, this is 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:25.160 a really great idea, let's just make this the meal. 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:27.600 So from what I can tell, it began as the 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.440 bron Vins board and then later became the Smorgas Board. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:33.520 And in addition to the fact that it was like 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.680 this awesome spread of great food that everybody loved, um, 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:42.440 the aristocracy like the fact that um, the the staff 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.800 would just be attending to the Smorgas board. They wouldn't 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:47.360 be waiting on the guests. So if you kind of 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.640 wanted more privacy or whatever at your dinner party, a 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.040 Smorgas board was the way to go. Yeah, that makes sense. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:57.560 Keep him out of our hair food. I think it 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:00.880 was a little more of a refined experience and just 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.840 go like stuff your face with everything. Yeah, that's that's 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.640 still a big difference between a Swedish Smorgas board in 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.600 an American buffet. Yeah, like very well laid out on 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.880 like a round table in a specific order that's not 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.680 necessarily just an order to make you fill up on 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:19.000 cheap food first, which we'll get to later, but yeah, 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.080 it sounds kind of cool. And then in the nineteen 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:25.280 twelve Stockholm Olympic Games, I think the rest of the 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.480 world saw the Smorgas board and it was like, we 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.480 need to bring a little piece of that back home 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.560 to the good old USA. Yeah, they're like you served 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.040 yourself from a table in the same room where you 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.920 sit down and eat. This is amazing, And there is 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.760 something amazing about it that I still, despite researching and 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.600 writing this whole thing, I cannot put my finger on 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.120 what it is. But there's just something about buffets or 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.880 smorgas sports, right, So something did capture the world's attention 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.280 at that nineteen twelve Olympics, and then in America in particular, 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.479 the Smorgas board really got a boost at the ninety 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.440 nine World It's fair, Um, that's the one where that 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.800 big Globe is over in Flushing, Queens, right, Oh sure, yeah. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.640 Um so at that one there was a Swedish pavilion 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.040 and they had a restaurant there called the Three Crowns Restaurant, 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.760 and they put out a real deal Schmorges board and 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:17.600 the Americans just went bonkers for it. And it, as 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.200 a matter of fact, they said, just give us a 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:21.960 couple of years, we're going to figure out how to 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.480 turn this into basically the most American thing anyone's ever 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:30.280 invented in the history of food service. Right. So from 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.920 there we moved to Las Vegas, which is you know, 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.880 you can't talk about buffets without talking about Vegas, of course. 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.640 And um, early, early on what would become the Las 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:46.000 Vegas Strip, before Benny Siegel even was dreaming of the Flamingo, 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.280 was Bugsy Bugsy Seagull, right, yeah, Benny's his real name, 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:52.360 Buggsy was. I was wondering that the way you said it, 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.760 I've been correcting you lately and just putting my foot 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:58.120 in my mouth every time. So I came at it 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:02.000 a little more trepidacious. Leave them before. He's definitely more 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.400 trepidaciously than the second Jeweyah correction oh, did you get 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.600 the super cut of that from the basically exact same 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.800 conversation we already had years before. No, I did see 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:18.920 people mention it les. You gotta hear that. Please? Were 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.000 you forward that to me? I gotta yeah, I'll have 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.280 to dig it off. It was good stuff. I want 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.960 to give him his due to uh so her McDonald 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.880 was this guy's name. He was a publicist and he 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:31.839 was kind of one of the very first people to 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.720 start working on would become the Vegas Strip. And he's 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.960 given credit as the guy that came up with the 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.440 his L Rancho Vegas or I guess where he worked 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.400 at the l Rancho, which is the first hotel there 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:49.840 on the strip what would become the Las Vegas Buffet. Yeah, 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:52.160 but the legend has that that one night in the 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.680 late forties, he was um hungry and he went to 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.480 the kitchen and came back with a bunch of cold 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.079 cuts and cheese. Is kind of laid him out to 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.679 make himself a sandwich, and some of the gamblers who 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:03.240 were there late at night, we're like, hey, I'm kind 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:05.760 of hungry, can I get some of that? And he thought, huh, 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.200 this is not a bad idea. If I lay out 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.680 some food that isn't a sit down meal that the 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.040 gamblers can serve themselves, they're going to spend more time 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.680 here gambling. So maybe I will create what's now known 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.400 as the American Buffet. In Las Vegas. The cheap all 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:25.280 you can eat twenty four hour Buffet had its origins 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.360 from that little Eureka moment. Yeah, the Midnight chuck Wagon 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.720 was the name of the the first deal I guess 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:38.319 at a dollar, and they became known for the twenty 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:42.080 four hour version, which was the Bucaru Buffet, which was 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.199 a buck It was a dollar the Buckaroo, of course, 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.920 and uh yeah, it's it's I mean it's everyone kind 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.079 of knows the history of Vegas and like cheap food, 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:57.120 cheap or free food, and cheaper free drinks and fairly 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.480 cheaper free rooms. That was sort of the old days. 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.559 It's not a cheap, cheap town to visit these days. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:04.480 I think they still run a lot of deals and 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.720 stuff like that because gambling is where they make, you know, 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.760 where they want to make most of their money. But 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.120 they did wise up at some point and they were like, hey, listen, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.680 we're not just gonna keep giving away steak dinners and stuff. Well, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.240 people started coming for the shows and stuff like that 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.040 and weren't necessarily gambling time was if you went to Vegas, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.160 you went and emptied your pockets there so they could 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.680 afford to lose money on like the buffet or whatever. 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:30.840 But the Vegas all all you can eat, all night 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.479 buffet that started in the late forties and became synonymous 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:38.600 with the town actually kind of lent a bit of 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:44.800 um cash to buffets in general and in the United States. 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.439 We'll see like they kind of spread from there. Started 0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:51.440 in in Scandinavia, moved to the World's Fair nine, then 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.440 to Vegas, and then from Vegas, it just kind of 0:12:53.480 --> 0:13:00.360 spread like um just spider web of I don't like, 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.840 I love like apple turnover all a mode. Okay, Yeah, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.160 I thought you were gonna say something like a five 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.520 gallon pan of hollandaise sauce. Oh that that is so 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.520 much better than what I said. Man, that was that 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.640 was amazing. Chuck. All right, let's take a break and 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.200 we're gonna dive into the Golden age. We love golden ages, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:40.840 the golden age of the buffet right after this, Chuck. Okay, 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:44.559 So there's long been in America restaurants that have been 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.520 like all you can eat blank for blank amount of money. Yeah, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.000 we used to do that something, sure. I mean like, 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.800 did you ever read a Buffalo's Cafe for wings? Oh? No, 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.440 did they have an all you can eat Yeah, but 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.320 it was it was like all you can eat ings 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.040 for like say eight or nine or ten dollars or whatever. Right. Yeah, 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.040 we went to a place called Rio Vista on Memorial Drive, 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.400 which was it was like all you can eat catfish 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.720 on Tuesday night. So that kind of thing, right, yeah, yeah, 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.280 and that's still very much around. And that apparently is 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.560 where the whole the whole idea behind buffets finds its 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.760 other footing, it's other origin in the United States. Was 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.280 this these kind of deals that were meant to kind 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.640 of generate new business, Like you would go try out 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.160 a restaurant. Um, there's this really great site called Restauranting 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:34.320 through History, terrible name, but a great site. And um, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.440 the person who runs the site found this ad for 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:43.960 the City Restaurant in Elyra, Ohio, Yeah, from and it 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.880 was all you can eat oyster stew for cents. So 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.800 it had been around for a little while, but when 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.720 the depression rolled around all of a sudden, people were like, oh, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:55.640 all you can eat sounds kind of good because I 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.520 haven't eaten in a week and a half and I've 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.160 got this whole family who's starving too, so let's go 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.800 try this. And they did. Yeah, that surprised me. I 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:07.080 was surprised to see them turn up in the depression, Uh, 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.320 just because of value and stuff. But you know, food 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.160 prices were low, so I guess they could afford to 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:18.560 charge people fifties or sixty cents or something for all 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:20.760 they well, not all they care to eat. That wasn't 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.240 really a thing yet, but people did love it. And 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:28.640 apparently um desserts during the depression era, buffets was really 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.720 where they because I guess that was just a rare, 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.720 rare treat, so they would really load up on the sweets. Yeah, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.480 they definitely, they definitely would. But it it taught people 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:39.760 who ran restaurants like, wait a minute, wait a minute, 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:43.440 if you order people or if you offer people, you 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.440 know what, all they can eat of something like some 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:50.040 people do like over indulge, but a lot of people 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:53.280 just eat like a normal amount, which is weird. And 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.720 that kind of gave this like, um confidence, I guess 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.160 to restaurant tours to kind of start to move into 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:04.000 the like changing their restaurant entirely over to and all 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.440 you can eat set up. Yeah. So, you know, we 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.680 go down to the fifties and sixties where legit Chain 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:16.080 started opening that were you know, very cheap or you know, 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.040 let's just say inexpensive buffets. And this is where you 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.920 start to see um, you know, mac and cheese and 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:28.240 carb heavy meals and fried chicken and salads like jello, 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.480 you know, the little kind of festive looking jello mold 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.400 salads that you're not quite sure what's inside. And then 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:41.240 Chain said, you know what, this morgue board word is 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:42.920 kind of weird, Like, I don't think they were using 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:44.720 the word buffet at all at that point where they 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.400 id started around the same time in like the fifties 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.280 or sixties, okay, but they were using Smorguese boards sometimes 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:57.720 or smorgy or other variations like smore get or smorga. 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.160 And this is when and uh, they kind of started 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:07.200 leaning away from um, these nice round tables of food 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:13.480 to the long sort of cattle style. Yeah. Yeah, I think, 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.439 you know, like I said that Vegas buffets kind of 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:20.080 gave buffets everywhere else in the United States is kind 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.280 of cash and part of that was presentation, and that 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.040 as more and more chains kind of grew and took 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.120 over the whole buffet style food. Um. Yeah, they did 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.480 away with the presentation part really quick and just to 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:35.960 like eat your slop. You know. It was more about 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.200 that they'd shove you into lying that kind of thing. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:42.760 But the idea, the idea, um, like you said, uh, 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.199 Smorgese board was kind of taking off. It seems to 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.320 have been like out west and in the Midwest, morege 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.960 and all that, but then elsewhere buffet started to come 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.000 to be used. So by about the fifties or the sixties, 0:17:55.320 --> 0:18:00.719 you had Smorges and buffet's proliferating across the United States 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:06.920 like a pan of apple turnover all the mode yeah uh. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.520 And that word buffet, you know, comes from the furniture piece, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.000 the French furniture piece. For like we call them sideboards 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.240 sometimes it's what we have a couple in our house 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.919 from Emily's grandparents. Um, but people call those buffets as well. 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:27.960 We call them bedspreads. I called them comforters or afghan 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.480 remember those growing up? Did you have afghans in the house. 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.760 Yeah yeah, they were always too small. It was like, 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:39.080 why did you make this the itchiest way to keep 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:41.880 warm of all time? Probably besides like a wool blanket. 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.920 Yeah yeah. I'm not big on afghans. I like things 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.760 to be bigger than that, so softer. I don't know 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:53.200 about small afghans. What's going on there? They were always 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:59.800 just slightly too small. Wouldn't cover from chin to foot? No, no, no, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.200 he never has there been an afghan that has covered 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.880 from chinda foot successfully, even if you do the little 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.560 diagonal trick. Yes, I've even tried that, and then it's 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.000 like too short on the sides, so like my love 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:16.199 handles will be cold. Oh no, get at. The thing 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.800 that I remember growing up with is what comes Next, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.919 which was um actually a lot of these, but the 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:26.320 Western steakhouse sort of buffet, which was actually one of them, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:30.080 was started by Dan Blocker Of who played Hoss Cartwright 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:34.680 on Bonanza. He started the Ponderosa Steakhouse, which I must 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.639 have known that back then because we went to ponder 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.680 Rosa's and Bonanza was the big one. The big one 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.880 that we went to Ponderosa was the buffet. I grew 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.480 up with two up in Toledo. Yeah, I love those bonanzas. 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:49.920 It's sort of I mean the same company, right, Yeah, 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:51.399 as far as I know, I'm not sure what the 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.000 difference was. We didn't have a Bonanza, Like I said, 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.080 it was just Toledo. But um, we did have that Ponderosa. 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.439 It was wonderful. What about Sizzler. Sissler we didn't have, 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.240 But I was aware. You know, when you think of 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.080 like the steakhouse theme buffets, aware comes to mind. Yeah, 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.199 I was since aware we ever went to Sissler. That 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:13.360 seems like a cut above if I remember correctly. Yeah, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.920 I think it always at the very least positioned itself 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.919 if not, was actually a cut above. There's also one 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.919 called Chuck a Rama, but I've never heard of. And 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.600 then Golden Corral everybody knows about. Um it's been around 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.840 since the seventies, and Golden Corral is like the last 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.520 man standing. From what I can tell, it's actually doing 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.720 rather well. I think there was still one over by 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.919 the North and cab Moth. I'm not mistaken. They're everywhere. 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.199 They're still building them now. Yeah, well, but they're not 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.920 everywhere around where I live. I got you, what about 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.919 did you ever go to Western Sizzland because it was 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.240 really it was established in AUGUSTUS, so I would guess 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.520 you you had been there before. Yeah, I went to 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.080 Western Sizzling and then the other big ones uh and 0:20:58.119 --> 0:20:59.720 they are in fact next on the list or when 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:04.040 they went sort of uh farmy homespun. Um. There was 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.840 an old country buffet near where I lived, and there 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:12.000 were also Hometown Buffet's Ryan's Grill and then Bakery and Buffet, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:16.479 all owned by Ovation Brands, which was just pumping out 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.720 garbage food to buffets all over the country. Right, Yeah, 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:22.960 you've me said that the worst case of food poisoning 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:24.920 she ever had was the first time she ever tried 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.719 a buffet and it was O Ryan's and she just 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:30.320 she can't even say that word, Like she can't even 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.560 be friends with somebody named Ryan now because she'll just 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.520 get sick at the thought of that. Oh man, she 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.679 can't even watch Ryan Gosling or Ryan dal No. I 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:40.880 have to call her, I have to call him Gosling 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.720 if I call him anything else. I like and was 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.080 a big fan and we as a family as well 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.960 of the um of I guess ethnic buffets with we 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:54.399 didn't do many Mexican ones, but there were definitely Mexican. 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.280 There was definitely one we went to sometimes on Sunday 0:21:57.280 --> 0:21:59.080 morning that had I think it was kind of even 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:02.679 before they started calling brunch. But I can't remember the 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.400 name of it. But it had a really nice taco 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.199 station and they would make you like a fahita station 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.160 and that stuff was so good where you don't remember 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:13.440 the name of it. No, man, I can't remember the name. 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:15.680 I don't think it was Poncho's. I don't think it 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.720 was a chain I got you. Weah. We went to 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:21.399 Chee Cheese when I was a kid. I don't remember 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.640 being a buffet. Strangely, I don't. I don't know why 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.520 I didn't know it was either. Yeah, that's where I 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:31.440 was introduced to the Chimmy Chonga. I'd love to eat 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.720