Grand Junction Buffet Returns to Self Serve But With Protocols

After almost a year of operating in "cafeteria mode," this Grand Junction buffet has returned to self serve. While almost "back to normal," there are a few exceptions.

My only guilty pleasure (that I'm aware of) involves the Sunday morning all-you-eat breakfast buffet at Golden Corral at 1100 Independent Avenue in Grand Junction. They have it all - bacon, waffles, fruit, salads, even custom omelets.

When COVID-19 hit, the restaurant, along with all the other buffets, had to shift from self serve to "cafeteria" dining. In other words, you could still go up and get anything you wanted, but a server had to handle the plate and the serving utensils. While no one's first choice, it worked.

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Along comes this last Sunday, November 14, and voila', the buffet was back to self serve. While that feature returned, it wasn't without a few modifications.

When approaching the buffet, you'll see signs asking you to sanitize your hands, and then place disposable gloves on your hands. This is all provided at the start of the chow line.

You might be saying to yourself "Wow, this must be a slow news day." Perhaps. To my mind, though, it's one baby-step back to the life we knew before mid-March 2020. I have my beloved Sunday fixture back to the way I remember it, only with gloves.

In a way, the whole thing is mildly amusing. Before leaving your table to approach the buffet, patrons look like they're preparing for a spacewalk by putting on their mast, sanitizing, and then applying oversized gloves.

Someday we'll all be able to tell our grandchildren "I was there when you couldn't even dish up your own food." We'll talk about the old days when you had to sanitize and put on gloves to visit the buffet. In the meantime, it's great to have the buffet back to "normal."