France and Sweden were the very first countries to formalize the concept of a buffet. In Sweden the smorgasbord started as a way to feed hungry out-of-town visitors. They initially served bread and butter boards and eventually evolved to include several sequential courses, like salted fish, boiled vegetables and eggs then moving on to warm entrees, cold cuts and salads, and ending finally with coffee and dessert.
The French had a polished idea of a buffet – filling their extravagant “buffet” tables as a sign of stature and focusing more on entertaining guests instead of the cooking aspect.
In 1939 World’s Fair in New York the Swedes introduced smorgasbord to America. At the Three Crowns restaurant they displayed a sizable selection of dishes atop a revolving platform.
Herb McDonald, the man who created America’s very first all-you-can-eat buffet did not have smorgasbord in mind. McDonald made his way to Las Vegas where he was employed as a publicist in El Rancho Vegas in the 1940s. He got the idea of the buffet in a bid to make his gambling customers happy late one night. He had wandered into the hotel’s kitchen, took out cheese, bread and cold cuts and spread these items along the bar for his customers to eat. It was an instant hit.
So, McDonald decided to turn it into a 24-hour-all-you-can-eat buffet and named it the “Buckaroo Buffet.” Each diner only paid $1 to choose from seafood, cold cuts, salads and an extensive variety of hot and cold entrees.
The Buckaroo Buffet may not have been profitable per se but El Rancho did gain a lot of loyal customers and new patrons so overall, it was a great business strategy and it did not take long before other hotels along the Vegas Strip copied the idea.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese immigrant families were able to circumvent the immigration laws by putting up restaurants and introduced Chinese cuisine in such a way that would suit American tastebuds, serving egg rolls and beef chow fan. By the 1980s, there were salad bars and ice cream stations in buffets and you can see these establishments along the interstates.
Herb McDonald’s creation, combined with the smorgasbord trend, paved the way for the buffet bonanza across the nation with restaurants like Hometown Buffet, Sizzler, Wynn, Golden Corral and many others modeled after the original concept.
Fast-Food Buffets
In the 1980s and early ’90s commercial jingles for Sizzler was as popular as the national anthem. Pretty much everyone knows what a buffet is but what we don’t typically think about is fast-food buffet. Did it ever exist? Yes. Was it a success? Not really.
The fast-food buffet concept was bound to materialize, the culmination of a race in maximizing caloric consumption – endless popcorn chicken, nacho cheese and pudding.
Buffets were a major success in the US and fast-food restaurants wanted to take a piece of the pie. They flirted with buffets at some point or another. McDonald’s had a breakfast buffet. KFC still has a few buffets here and there. Wendy’s Super Bar did not last long, but the salad bar was around for many years.
But in the end, the whole idea of fast food buffet didn’t last. The chains folded. And now that the age of COVID-19 has almost come to pass, it’s unlikely it will be a reality again.