"Eighty years ago, the first Las Vegas buffet opened with the $1 western-themed Buckaroo Buffet that offered cold cuts and cheese. Today, visitors can drop $175 on luxury buffets with lobster tail, prime rib and limitless drinks. The old Las Vegas buffets didn't make much money, but they allowed people to eat cheaply and quickly, giving them more time to spend their money on the casino floor."
"But the number of buffets has dwindled to around a dozen on the Las Vegas Strip. Many shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic and elected not to reopen with rising prices. Before the Carnival World Buffet at the Rio closed in 2020 and was replaced with the Canteen Food Hall, it touted itself as Las Vegas' largest buffet with over 300 international dishes to choose from. It had just about everything you could eat for around $30, said Jim Higgins, a Las Vegas food tour guide."
"Many of the city's old-school buffets have been replaced by trendy food halls and pricey celebrity chef-driven restaurants - and the so-called luxury buffet, making it now an attraction in and of itself. The rise of Las Vegas as a foodie town drove demands for higher quality dining, said Al Mancini, a longtime food journalist in Las Vegas and the creator of a food guide called Neonfest. Longtime Las Vegas visitors liken the decline of buffets to the disappearance of the 99-cent shrimp cocktail, another iconic offering that had contributed to the city's reputation as an affordable vacation spot."
Eighty years ago the first Las Vegas buffet opened as the $1 western-themed Buckaroo Buffet offering cold cuts and cheese. Luxury buffets now charge up to $175 and include lobster tail, prime rib and limitless drinks. Early buffets produced little profit but enabled cheap, fast meals that kept patrons gambling longer. The number of Strip buffets has fallen to roughly a dozen after many closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and chose not to reopen amid rising costs. Several large buffets were replaced by food halls, celebrity-chef restaurants and upscale luxury buffet attractions. The city's evolution into a foodie destination raised demand for higher-quality dining, eroding low-cost buffet culture.
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