Will Virus Spell Doom for the Restaurant Buffet?

Souplantation, known as Sweet Tomatoes outside Southern California, announced it doors are closed for good. The buffet chain has decided to permanently close its 97 locations that were temporarily shut down over COVID-19. Now experts say that the fall of popular chain may be a predicator of bad things to come for all self-serve eateries.

CEO John Haywood, of Garden Fresh Restaurants, which owns Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, said recommendations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were instrumental in the decision to cease operations.

“The FDA had previously put out recommendations that included discontinuing self-serve stations, like self-serve beverages in fast food, but they specifically talked about salad bars and buffets,” Haywood said, according to People. “The regulations are understandable, but unfortunately, it makes it very difficult to reopen. And I’m not sure the health departments are ever going to allow it.”

According to Restaurant Business, experts say that “while it’s premature to say that the buffet is dead, it seems likely to go into a coma for a while.”

Federal recommendations on reopening restaurants note they should discontinue self-serve operations.  That means that besides buffet dining, self-serve drink stations at many fast-food restaurants will be gone for a while.

The new federal guidelines are in direct opposition to the concept of self-serve and buffet dining that allows customers to get an endless supply of food whenever they’ve emptied their plates, says Restaurant Business.

“The social distancing as it relates to buffets is a challenge,” said Roslyn Stone, chief operating officer for Zero Hour Health, which helps restaurant operators with food safety and health issues.

Restaurants that offer extensive buffet menus now face a longer timeline for reopening than regular dine-in eateries. And many of them already had financial problems and limited options from investors before the coronavirus crisis, says Restaurant Business.

All these factors added together might spell the end for a massive portion of the buffet menu business.