Pizza Hut, Ponderosa & Bonanza Steakhouses and other restaurant chains have roped off their buffets to prevent contamination and crowding as they seek to reopen dining rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. And grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market and Wegmans Food Markets Inc. have kept hot-food bars closed since March, until lately a growing part of the business and a draw for customers. Now, those sales have plummeted given the risk of self-service food. Health officials have advised suspending self-service food stations because they lead to crowding of customers and repeated touching of utensils. Restaurants are trying to restore dine-in service in states where they still can, and grocers are starting to return some features common before the pandemic, including sampling and prepackaged meals. But they say many buffets and salad-bar stations are unlikely to return soon, if ever. Without a clear way to move to a takeout model, Garden Fresh Restaurants, owner of around 100 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes buffet-focused restaurants, filed for bankruptcy in May. “Our sales collapsed,” said John Haywood, Garden Fresh’s pre-bankruptcy chief executive. (Subscription required.)
