Which restaurants can you dine in?

[Cares]

I just realized I put this in the wrong forum... should be in Food and Dining.

Anyways... @USC... I CAN BBQ is now open for dine-in service... the long wait is over!

Baekjjong (sp?) is open now too...I like them for KBBQ the most in Irvine.

 

[usctrojancpa]

I hear a lot of OC restaurants now have dine in.  and LA people are coming down to OC to eat.
Los Angeles has the most covid cases in CA.  About 10X more than OC.

Are you guys going to do dine in?  I think I'll wait a bit.


Good luck to the servers and front of house!

Yeah, I'll wait as well.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Looks like Acapulco has solved the buffet dilemma.

They are open today for the Sunday Brunch Buffet and in their email they put:

JOIN US FOR SUNDAY BRUNCH!

Visit Our Brunch Stations Where We'll Serve You!

- Includes -
Your favorite Hot Mexican Entr?es and Taco, Salad, and Dessert Stations.

Plus, bottomless beverages, omelettes made to order, menudo
and pozole served to you at your table!

Available Sunday 9AM - 2PM.

Currently available at our Costa Mesa location.

So it's a combination of they serve you at several stations (so no multiple contacts for serving utensils) and table service for other items.

I wonder how Hometown Buffet and Golden Corral (and places like John's Incredible Pizza) will evolve.

 

[usctrojancpa]

I just realized I put this in the wrong forum... should be in Food and Dining.

Anyways... @USC... I CAN BBQ is now open for dine-in service... the long wait is over!

Baekjjong (sp?) is open now too...I like them for KBBQ the most in Irvine.

I've give it a few weeks before I go there.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

So I risked my life yesterday.

Not at a protest... but went to I Can BBQ.

It's like my buddy told me, not really distancing booths as almost every one was filled.

But, the caveat is... each booth has those large vents to suck up all the smoke so maybe it's sucking the corona away too.

Was it worth it? It was nice to have hot, fresh food in a dine-in scenario... but I'll update you all in about 2 weeks.

 

[potsticker]

Interesting. Super bummed Souplantation closed. I would've loved to see them go to a "all-served" menu like Olive Garden does with the unlimited soup/salad/bread sticks.

 

[qwerty]

So I risked my life yesterday.

Not at a protest... but went to I Can BBQ.

It's like my buddy told me, not really distancing booths as almost every one was filled.

But, the caveat is... each booth has those large vents to suck up all the smoke so maybe it's sucking the corona away too.

Was it worth it? It was nice to have hot, fresh food in a dine-in scenario... but I'll update you all in about 2 weeks.

It was nice knowing IHO! Let me know your favorite basketball court and I?ll tape a $100 to the backboard in your honor

 

[Bullsback]

Interesting. Super bummed Souplantation closed. I would've loved to see them go to a "all-served" menu like Olive Garden does with the unlimited soup/salad/bread sticks.

They might have actually saved money cause they could have managed the "serving side" of the people. Kind of a, 3 items of a time limit or something.  Yes, you have some cost for extra servers but on flipside, can manage inventory.  I figure a new soup plantation will emerge in a few years. 

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Emails tell me that Olive Garden and Islands are open for dine-in service... unless TIC is in curfew lockdown.

I need to wait 14 days before I try to dine in again.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Looks like the buffets are not doomed, Golden Corral has re-opened:
https://www.ibtimes.com/no-buffet-golden-corral-reopening-heres-how-list-locations-open-2977085

To serve customers without offering a buffet, Golden Corral will offer cafeteria-style or family-style dining. Through its cafeteria-style offering, Golden Coral workers will serve customers as they move through the buffet line while family-style will offer an ?endless buffet? meal brought to tables by a server.

Golden Corral also said it has implemented a series of safety measures at its restaurants, including rigorous cleaning standards, employee temperature checks, hand sanitizing stations, and social distancing procedures. Social distancing methods will include table spacing, floor makers, and beverage delivery.

Not sure why Souplantation gave up... maybe they were struggling prior and this was the final straw. Their model may have more touches than a regular buffet because they more add-ons for their salads and more soups but I think they could figure it out.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Call me crazy.

Couldn?t wait 14 days. 

Ate in at another restaurant.

They (and others) told me business has been good the last 3 months due to take-out and tons of delivery services.

For some, the lockdown was good for their economy.

 

[Cares]

Looks like the buffets are not doomed, Golden Corral has re-opened:
https://www.ibtimes.com/no-buffet-golden-corral-reopening-heres-how-list-locations-open-2977085

To serve customers without offering a buffet, Golden Corral will offer cafeteria-style or family-style dining. Through its cafeteria-style offering, Golden Coral workers will serve customers as they move through the buffet line while family-style will offer an ?endless buffet? meal brought to tables by a server.

Golden Corral also said it has implemented a series of safety measures at its restaurants, including rigorous cleaning standards, employee temperature checks, hand sanitizing stations, and social distancing procedures. Social distancing methods will include table spacing, floor makers, and beverage delivery.

Not sure why Souplantation gave up... maybe they were struggling prior and this was the final straw. Their model may have more touches than a regular buffet because they more add-ons for their salads and more soups but I think they could figure it out.

I was questioning this as well. Why didn't they just hire more staff and SERVE everyone instead? They were probably operating at a loss or extremely low margins that it didn't make sense to increase operating costs.

 

[eyephone]

Looks like the buffets are not doomed, Golden Corral has re-opened:
https://www.ibtimes.com/no-buffet-golden-corral-reopening-heres-how-list-locations-open-2977085

To serve customers without offering a buffet, Golden Corral will offer cafeteria-style or family-style dining. Through its cafeteria-style offering, Golden Coral workers will serve customers as they move through the buffet line while family-style will offer an ?endless buffet? meal brought to tables by a server.

Golden Corral also said it has implemented a series of safety measures at its restaurants, including rigorous cleaning standards, employee temperature checks, hand sanitizing stations, and social distancing procedures. Social distancing methods will include table spacing, floor makers, and beverage delivery.

Not sure why Souplantation gave up... maybe they were struggling prior and this was the final straw. Their model may have more touches than a regular buffet because they more add-ons for their salads and more soups but I think they could figure it out.

I was questioning this as well. Why didn't they just hire more staff and SERVE everyone instead? They were probably operating at a loss or extremely low margins that it didn't make sense to increase operating costs.

https://souplantation.com/about-us/

97 stores x potential modifications for each locations x potential additional staff
Idk

 

[aquabliss]

Looks like they took the ?about us? page down now.  You gave me some hope, but doesn?t look promising.

 

[eyephone]

Looks like they took the ?about us? page down now.  You gave me some hope, but doesn?t look promising.

I just clicked the link and it worked. (the link I posted)

 

[aquabliss]

Ok I?ll try again in a bit.  I keep getting the below, but the main page works for me ok, just not about us:

Hosting Server Read Timeout
HTTP 502 ? Unable to Connect to the Origin Server

Please try again in a few minutes

 

[Bullsback]

Call me crazy.

Couldn?t wait 14 days. 

Ate in at another restaurant.

They (and others) told me business has been good the last 3 months due to take-out and tons of delivery services.

For some, the lockdown was good for their economy.

I didn't eat at any restaurant this weekend (never ate out a ton anyway, except for fast casual and it seems like a lot of fast casual places have still not opened their interiors) but I did have a weekend where I was antsy to eat anything except my own cooking (after 2+ months of by and large eating my own cooking...I'm pent up for new and different flavors). 

 

[Bullsback]

Looks like the buffets are not doomed, Golden Corral has re-opened:
https://www.ibtimes.com/no-buffet-golden-corral-reopening-heres-how-list-locations-open-2977085

To serve customers without offering a buffet, Golden Corral will offer cafeteria-style or family-style dining. Through its cafeteria-style offering, Golden Coral workers will serve customers as they move through the buffet line while family-style will offer an ?endless buffet? meal brought to tables by a server.

Golden Corral also said it has implemented a series of safety measures at its restaurants, including rigorous cleaning standards, employee temperature checks, hand sanitizing stations, and social distancing procedures. Social distancing methods will include table spacing, floor makers, and beverage delivery.

Not sure why Souplantation gave up... maybe they were struggling prior and this was the final straw. Their model may have more touches than a regular buffet because they more add-ons for their salads and more soups but I think they could figure it out.

I was questioning this as well. Why didn't they just hire more staff and SERVE everyone instead? They were probably operating at a loss or extremely low margins that it didn't make sense to increase operating costs.

I had just assumed they would have pivoted that direction. There must have been a different issue (maybe the PE company - I think they were PE owned or at least had gotten sold recently) where they were overlevered or something and had to BK because of other "on top of" challenges.  I think I read an article where there concern was, having others serve you just took away from the concept you can put as little or as much of anything on your salad or soup as you want, but I don't see how a person serving me changes that dynamic (I still just say...1 carrot please or whatever that dynamic is). 

 

[Bullsback]

Looks like the buffets are not doomed, Golden Corral has re-opened:
https://www.ibtimes.com/no-buffet-golden-corral-reopening-heres-how-list-locations-open-2977085

To serve customers without offering a buffet, Golden Corral will offer cafeteria-style or family-style dining. Through its cafeteria-style offering, Golden Coral workers will serve customers as they move through the buffet line while family-style will offer an ?endless buffet? meal brought to tables by a server.

Golden Corral also said it has implemented a series of safety measures at its restaurants, including rigorous cleaning standards, employee temperature checks, hand sanitizing stations, and social distancing procedures. Social distancing methods will include table spacing, floor makers, and beverage delivery.

Not sure why Souplantation gave up... maybe they were struggling prior and this was the final straw. Their model may have more touches than a regular buffet because they more add-ons for their salads and more soups but I think they could figure it out.

I was questioning this as well. Why didn't they just hire more staff and SERVE everyone instead? They were probably operating at a loss or extremely low margins that it didn't make sense to increase operating costs.

https://souplantation.com/about-us/

97 stores x potential modifications for each locations x potential additional staff
Idk

The salad bar already had an entire area in the middle where employees work, so the only real place you would have had to make any dramatic change was on the soup and even than, don't even change it at all, just shift the concept a bit where you wrote down what soup's you wanted and people quickly brought those soups out to you (you could put "s / m / l" or something on them so they could be careful of waste.  If you noticed a lot of massive waste, you could always do what other AYCE places do which is put an excess waste charge on the back-end. 

 

[eyephone]

Looks like the buffets are not doomed, Golden Corral has re-opened:
https://www.ibtimes.com/no-buffet-golden-corral-reopening-heres-how-list-locations-open-2977085

To serve customers without offering a buffet, Golden Corral will offer cafeteria-style or family-style dining. Through its cafeteria-style offering, Golden Coral workers will serve customers as they move through the buffet line while family-style will offer an ?endless buffet? meal brought to tables by a server.

Golden Corral also said it has implemented a series of safety measures at its restaurants, including rigorous cleaning standards, employee temperature checks, hand sanitizing stations, and social distancing procedures. Social distancing methods will include table spacing, floor makers, and beverage delivery.

Not sure why Souplantation gave up... maybe they were struggling prior and this was the final straw. Their model may have more touches than a regular buffet because they more add-ons for their salads and more soups but I think they could figure it out.

I was questioning this as well. Why didn't they just hire more staff and SERVE everyone instead? They were probably operating at a loss or extremely low margins that it didn't make sense to increase operating costs.

https://souplantation.com/about-us/

97 stores x potential modifications for each locations x potential additional staff
Idk

The salad bar already had an entire area in the middle where employees work, so the only real place you would have had to make any dramatic change was on the soup and even than, don't even change it at all, just shift the concept a bit where you wrote down what soup's you wanted and people quickly brought those soups out to you (you could put "s / m / l" or something on them so they could be careful of waste.  If you noticed a lot of massive waste, you could always do what other AYCE places do which is put an excess waste charge on the back-end.

I think the whole concept needs to change. Previously the workers interaction was minimal. The salad bar line would need to be only 1 line or removed. The soup/pasta/pizza area would need to be roped off or plexy glass around it so no one can get in that area or completely removed.