Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Fading Fast]

Buffets around here are strictly a proletarian thing -- your choice is all-you-can-eat Chinese, all-you-can-eat fried seafood, or all-you-can-eat KFC. I can't even begin to imagine what an upscale "all you can eat" place would be like. All-you-can-eat avocado toast?

The Marriott I referenced did an all you can eat lobster buffet that was - when I was growing up - quite expensive, so we never went.

In my twenties, a girlfriend's parents took me to a all-you-can-eat brunch buffet at the Waldorf Astoria and it was a bit like a Roman Bacchanalia.

There were long and large tables overflowing with food - a table with every brunch pastry you could image, a table piled high with every kind of fruit, another table with seafood (all fresh shrimp, lobster, crab, etc.), a "carving" station of several meats (roast beef, turkey, ham), an omelette "station" where a chef (in full regalia) would make you an omelette to order (the choice of ingredients - all there - were incredible), ditto a pasta "station," ditto a pancake and waffle "station," plus tables of cereals, more eggs, sushi, more things I'm forgetting and, then, several tables of sweets - cakes, cookies, ice-cream (I think a sundae "bar"), puddings, petite fours, candies, Italian pastries and on and on.

It was all opulently displayed - on tablecloth-covered tables, in attractive serving dishes with flowers everywhere and several ice sculptures. There were many waiters/waitresses to whisk any used plates or napkins away (and fresh napkins, cloth of course, just appeared when you were up getting food). Soft drinks - juices, sodas, etc., - where included as where mimosas and Bloody Mary's, other alcohol drinks were extra if memory serves.

There was a string quartet playing off to the side.

It was all overwhelming and a bit crazy. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the foods as the tables went on and on. Not my thing, but I am glad I experienced it once in my life.

 

[scottyrocks]

Buffets around here are strictly a proletarian thing -- your choice is all-you-can-eat Chinese, all-you-can-eat fried seafood, or all-you-can-eat KFC. I can't even begin to imagine what an upscale "all you can eat" place would be like. All-you-can-eat avocado toast?

And wraps. Don't forget the wraps.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was all overwhelming and a bit crazy. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the foods as the tables went on and on. Not my thing, but I am glad I experienced it once in my life.

I think I saw a cartoon of that in the Daily Worker once. Ooowee.

The Maine Association of Broadcasters used to have a "banquet" every year at one or another of our state's Better Hotels-- maybe they still do -- and when I'd go to it you had the choice of rubber chicken or rubber beef, served from a steam table by an extremely disinterested hotel staffer who had all the panache of a "lunch lady" at a disadvantaged junior high school. One year I seriously considered brown bagging a ham sandwich or something just so I'd feel like there was something I actually wanted to eat.

 

[Upgrade]

A couple weeks back I drove by a hotel on the railroad tracks that was apparently a converted Harvey House. They were a bit earlier than Automats, but were entering a period of decline until they gave one last huzzah feeding the troops in WWII.

There's the story that one of the famed Harvey Girls would take your drink order and the next server would follow up and fill your cup with the correct beverage as if psychic.

As it turns out, the way the cup was placed on the saucer was a secret drink code: cup upside down, cup slanted off the saucer left/right, handle pointed left/right. Of course it only worked if the customer didn't fiddle with the arrangement.

 

[Fading Fast]

I think I saw a cartoon of that in the Daily Worker once. Ooowee.

The Maine Association of Broadcasters used to have a "banquet" every year at one or another of our state's Better Hotels-- maybe they still do -- and when I'd go to it you had the choice of rubber chicken or rubber beef, served from a steam table by an extremely disinterested hotel staffer who had all the panache of a "lunch lady" at a disadvantaged junior high school. One year I seriously considered brown bagging a ham sandwich or something just so I'd feel like there was something I actually wanted to eat.

I've been to more than my share of "rubber-chicken" diners, but in truth, they have gotten much better in the last decade as even these venues have "upped their game" owing to the aborning foodie culture.

Several years back, I was in a Hilton (I think, or similar hotel) at a conference where the option was chicken or fish and I chose the "parmesan crusted chicken" thinking "here we go again," but to my surprise, it was outstanding. And this was no fancy affair, but I think the pressure to improve is hitting all the places.

Re: the Daily Worker - the Waldorf buffet was a caricature of all that the far left hates about the perceived far right - except this is NYC, so most of those indulging at the Waldorf were "good New York liberals." I'm sure I was one of one or maybe one of two libertarians in the room that day.

 

[Zombie_61]

Buffet tends to imply that you serve yourself while a cafeteria implies someone behind the counter to hand the food over to you.

Theoretically, a buffet also has an all-you-can-eat mentality while a cafeteria has separate prices.

In this part of southern California that seems to be a vague distinction at best, but I'll admit I haven't really paid that much attention to whether the signs say "buffet" or "cafeteria". Still, it seems the majority of the restaurants that call themselves a "buffet" serve some form of Chinese food. Either way, unless it's made clear that it's an "all you can eat" restaurant, it isn't.

Buffets around here are strictly a proletarian thing -- your choice is all-you-can-eat Chinese, all-you-can-eat fried seafood, or all-you-can-eat KFC...

"All-you-can-eat KFC"??? I'm having difficulty getting my mind around that because the KFC restaurants around here charge a small fortune for a pathetic three-piece meal that consists of overly salted chicken jerky with a bone, and one or two side orders that aren't much more than an afterthought.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sunday Buffet at the KFC is very much a thing in a number of locations around our area -- I haven't done it myself, because I've overeaten KFC before and the result is disquieting, but it's very much a social event for a lot of folks. The Augusta KFC used to be quite famous for their buffet, and when they closed earlier this year it was a great blow to the social lives of many in the city's senior-citizen community.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine
Someone should organize an spring roll-eating contest.

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't understand eating contests other than that they are contests. I just saw a clip on the Nathan's hotdog contest. How could it be fun at any level to jam 61 or 51 or 71 (I forget) hotdogs in your mouth (along with water [!] soaked rolls) in x minutes. I just don't get it.

 

[BlueTrain]

None of the buffets I've eaten in, nearly all in the Northern Neck of Virginia (Land of Pleasant Living), were the least bit yuppified. In fact, nothing in the Northern Neck (Land of, etc.) was at all Yuppie. Yuppie implies urban. The Northern Neck is neither urban or suburban, although being an area fairly popular with retirees, there are many who might be urbane. The local folk call them "come heres," and it's not a compliment. Such an area that becomes more affluent because of relatively wealthy retired people also develops the "last one in" syndrome. While the local retail and food service businesses change as a result of becoming more and more of a retirement community, one thing it does not become is yuppified.

 

[MisterCairo]

 

[LizzieMaine]

We have a "Whoopie Pie Eating Contest" every summer at our annual Solstice Day fandango. Contestants, usually teenage boys or young men with something to prove, are required to eat as many of these traditional Maine delicacies as possible -- they're basically thick, disk-shaped versions of a Drake's Devil Dog, made with moist dense chocolate cakey-cookie things slathered in the middle with sugar-sweetened Crisco. Eating one of these buggers is usually enough to put me down for the count, but these guys really go to town, and usually end up with smashed cake and creme filling smeared all over their faces and clothes.

The prize is a whoopie pie about the diameter of a 78rpm record and about four inches thick. Good luck with that.

 

[tonyb]

The cafeteria in the hospital a block from where I lived for nearly 20 years met every criteria for that categorization save those insisted upon only by the most nit-picky, argumentative, and pedantic.

Food was pretty good. I often took lunch there with my then-girlfriend, who worked in the hospital. Last time I was there, maybe five years ago now, when a friend was undergoing surgery, the cafeteria had moved into a new part of the hospital complex and had been jazzed up a bit. But, pleased to report, it was still a grab-a-tray-and-tell-the-people-what-you-want arrangement. They'd make you a hamburger or a cold sandwich to order, if you weren't in a mood for whatever they had prepared vats of that day.

As to "upscale buffets" ...

That phrase isn't necessarily oxymoronic in the Seattle area, where a spendy buffet Sunday brunch can be had in a few relatively fancy restaurants -- most of which feature spectacular views and/or waterfront settings.

 

[Stearmen]

I don't understand eating contests other than that they are contests. I just saw a clip on the Nathan's hotdog contest. How could it be fun at any level to jam 61 or 51 or 71 (I forget) hotdogs in your mouth (along with water [!] soaked rolls) in x minutes. I just don't get it.

Hay, there is no better way to celebrate the birth of a nation, then to eat until you puke!

 

[Stearmen]

I don't understand eating contests other than that they are contests. I just saw a clip on the Nathan's hotdog contest. How could it be fun at any level to jam 61 or 51 or 71 (I forget) hotdogs in your mouth (along with water [!] soaked rolls) in x minutes. I just don't get it.

P.S. no mater how good you tell me it is, I will never eat a fried stick of butter!

 

[Trenchfriend]

We have a "Whoopie Pie Eating Contest" every summer at our annual Solstice Day fandango. Contestants, usually teenage boys or young men with something to prove, are required to eat as many of these traditional Maine delicacies as possible -- they're basically thick, disk-shaped versions of a Drake's Devil Dog, made with moist dense chocolate cakey-cookie things slathered in the middle with sugar-sweetened Crisco. Eating one of these buggers is usually enough to put me down for the count, but these guys really go to town, and usually end up with smashed cake and creme filling smeared all over their faces and clothes.

The prize is a whoopie pie about the diameter of a 78rpm record and about four inches thick. Good luck with that.

Hm, interesting, but not really my taste.

But, I could imagine, that they would be nice with banana-cream or so.

 

[BlueTrain]

I suppose we all have different ideas of what fun is and isn't.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Truckershorts"?
German retail offers this nice looking Denim-shorts, with 8 cm inside leg-length, so that they should not be mistaken with hotpants.

Hm, I'm thinking about...

 

[ChiTownScion]

Buffets around here are strictly a proletarian thing -- your choice is all-you-can-eat Chinese, all-you-can-eat fried seafood, or all-you-can-eat KFC. I can't even begin to imagine what an upscale "all you can eat" place would be like. All-you-can-eat avocado toast?

I did experience an All You Can Eat steakhouse in Texas. As I recall they were industrial grade cuts: not really what I'd call quality steak, and certainly not prime or choice.

I've gotten a lot more cautious about overeating steak or prime rib in the past couple of years. One night after wolfing down a particularly large slab of prime rib I could feel my heart go into overdrive. That episode scared the living hell out of me so much that I finally paid heed to my dear wife's admonitions to go easy.. which I had always presumed to be motivated by her penny pinching instinct.

 

[Haversack]

Here in Northern California there is/was a variant on cafeterias which are known as Hof Braus. You still have a tray that you take down a serving line where you indicate what you want and a serving is handed to you. The primary differences are that the line begins with a carving station where there is at least a roast baron of beef, a roast turkey, a baked ham, and a carver who will do the slicing; and beer is very much in evidence. These places are descended from the drinking establishments that used to offer the free lunch. Several still exist. Tommy's Joynt is well known in San Francisco. And there used to be an entire chain of Sam's Hof Brau around Sacramento. (I still have fond childhood memories of hot roast beef sandwiches with an iced mug of root beer at the Sam's out on Watt Avenue.)