07/13/2020

Welcome to the New Buffet

Surprise - It's a buffet no more

Before every stranger and every set of communal salad tongs became a threat to our existence, the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace was the ultimate grazing land for herds of wandering tourists in Las Vegas. It served more than 3,000 people a day across nine stations, featuring hundreds of items including nigiri sushi, dim sum, rotisserie chicken, bone marrow, 12-hour roasted American Wagyu, paella, lobster bisque, snow crab legs, chicken and waffles, gnocchi, pizza, deviled eggs, pho, miso soup (pause for breath), panang curry, cheeseburger sliders, soba noodles, poke, foie gras PB&J, oysters on the half-shell, shrimp and grits, street tacos, pozole, mapo tofu, General Tso’s chicken, avocado toast, peppercorn-crusted prime rib and I haven’t even touched upon the dessert options yet.

If you had a hankering for some dish in the world, the odds were good you could find it on the Bacchanal Buffet, prepared by one of nearly 50 cooks employed to set (and reset and reset again) the daily feast.

You know what happened next. Buffets — along with salad bars, hot bars, continental breakfasts, condiment stations and anything else that allowed customers to serve themselves — were one of the earliest victims of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Bacchananal Buffet was no exception. The federal government has recommended restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and the like discontinue any operations that “require customers to use common utensils or dispensers.” Journalists started writing the buffet’s obituary, sometimes with a heavy heart. They wondered if the pandemic would permanently padlock the gate at the Golden Corral.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.