taxare

If this has been covered in another thread, I apologize, but I didn't see it. With the Garden Fresh restaurants closing, I was thinking about all
of the lounge and restaurant breakfast buffets. I don't see those opening anytime in the near future. Would they keep them but only have
their employees get the food or would everything be served from the kitchen? Will food in the lounges be eliminated and will they now
only provide restaurant vouchers for breakfast? I know this is all speculation, but I believe some of us will start traveling again this summer.

anteater

I think many properties pre COVID-19 were limiting their lounge and buffet selections. For example, in Hawaii it was common to find plentiful hot entree and variety, but it slowly disappeared post Marriott merger. When I followed up with why it was so that the ‘hotel was more consistent with the Marriott brand guidelines’.

It would be open season given the economic climate to reduce offerings even once things get better, sadly.

Nuhusky

Buffets are gross

you serve yourself on communal utensils, people breath, cough sneeze on the food. Plus buffets just encourage people to overeat and then the food waste is criminal

DELee

but tasty!

Perhaps. The impact on jobs and capacity in the food production chain is and will be significant going forward. In any system, there's going to be waste - ever look at what doesn't get made/consumed/tossed in a regular restaurant on a daily basis or even an average American household on a weekly basis?

Besides, how else are we going to get to herd immunity?

David

scubadu

Wow... so now "buffet shaming" is a thing...

Regards

jimrpa

There are intelligent ways to provide a buffet-type experience. The Wicked Spoon provides many of its selections in pre-portioned, single servings on individual platings. I could see lounges going to a model similar to that. It would reduce waste, and be a way to assure guests of sanitary conditions (since the "new normal" seems to involve drenching every single person or surface in a toxic mix of purell, lysol, and clorox), particularly if individual servings had a cling-wrap covering or something. That may not work for everything, but for items, such as the sliced fruits, breads, pastries, etc., I can see where that would be a reasonable solution. Hot dishes, such as eggs, breakfast meats, and potatoes could also be pre-portioned into individual serving containers and kept under heat lamps (for a while I guess), with a foil overwrap and a label indicating what was inside.

craigthemif

Don't be surprised if COVID-19 is used as cover for all kinds of cost-saving measures.

Lounge food is definitely something that might be enhanced away. Would any chain be bold enough to take away elite breakfasts? Now that a BF buffet needs to be replaced by a-la-carte or, even worse, a grab bag of a muffin and banana...

DELee

Hmmm. Airplane food in hotels!

David

Deckter

Well i hope they are. Give me a freshly cooked breakfast/lunch anytime over a dish that has been sitting slightly reheated for up to 3 hours. Less waste, cause honestly , do people really need so much food in the first place?

Never understood the love for buffets, not because of some extreme weird germ phobia, but mainly because of the mediocre food that is being kept there for hours on end.

DELee

Why a buffet - especially for breakfast? "Cause I can grab items and be done/gone in less than 5 minutes. Even fewer minutes if I'm prepared with my bring along tortillas to handle those ball bearing pieces of scrambled eggs. Or I can hop in my car, wait in a drive thru line for an Egg McMuffin or some such for 10+ minutes during peak breakfast and also deal with the weather.

Why not a buffet? Uh, you ever dine at one of those hotel restaurants? "Uh, l think you can sit over here." "No, let me find out what we've got left." "Sorry the kitchen is taking so long" "Oh, that's right, you wanted more coffee." Self: Where did that waiter go again? I gotta leave. Self 2 days later: Why is there a for breakfast on my folio if I'm Platinum/Titanium?.

Ugh.

David

Nuhusky

which part? I assume overeating?

im as guilty at this as everyone else. When there is an unlimited amount of food

jerry said it best. Try not laughing and relating to every word he says. He is spot on and says it all

JumboJet

Oh yes, BUFFET is spelled botulism, urine, feces, echoli and trichinosis

aquamarinesteph

I have not willingly ate at any buffet-style anything in years. The only exceptions were when I was traveling in other countries and a buffet-style meal was my only option for breakfast, say.

Regardless of your politics, you should avoid buffets to stay your healthiest. Also, your food will taste better if you order from a menu and have it freshly prepared.

azepine00

Quite the opposite - instead of people ordering and eating a fraction of alacarte orders buffets allos you to take as much or as little as you need preventing food waste..

hygiene is really a matter of how buffets are set up - Asia is very sensitive to possible spread of germs and yet buffets there are extremely popular.

Scandinavians - a very healthy bunch universally have buffet type of lunch - only the choices are usually nice and healthy..

it is ridiculous to equate buffet with some low cost Las Vegas quantity over quality type of pigout - I can make the same case for countless awfull ala carte options as well...

Nuhusky

just watch the video and tell me buffets are not germ Havens.

NHK conducted an experiment to see how germs spread at a cruise buffet.

They applied fluorescent paint to the hands of 1 person and then had a group of 10 people dine.

In 30 min the paint had transferred to every individual and was on the faces of 3. 1 guy who was sick in the experiment doomed everyone


https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/202...422171000.html