"Whether the restaurant you frequent keeps fried rice and lo mein or cornbread and fried chicken in its chafing dishes, all-you-can-eat buffets are a quintessential part of American culture. With sprawling tables of food more grand than any classic restaurant's endless meal deals, buffets are a pinnacle of excess that could only come from Las Vegas. The practice of staying seated while being served a meal was turned on its head in 1946, and we have Herb McDonald to thank for that."
"As a publicist for El Rancho Vegas, McDonald spread cold cuts and cheeses out to make a sandwich, but wound up using the ingredients to feed hungry gamblers in what would be dubbed the Buckaroo Buffet. The first buffet in Las Vegas only cost a dollar, and guests were given 24-hour access to eat to their heart's content. The spread featured casual foods like salads, seafood dishes, cold cuts, and other items."
All-you-can-eat buffets became a defining part of American dining culture, popularized in Las Vegas after 1946. Herb McDonald created the Buckaroo Buffet at El Rancho Vegas by laying out cold cuts and cheeses that evolved into a 24-hour, $1 all-you-can-eat spread. The buffet featured casual items such as salads, seafood, and cold cuts and attracted steady customer flow despite limited immediate profit. The concept quickly spread to other casinos and hotels across Las Vegas and the United States. The buffet tradition traces earlier roots to a 16th-century Swedish brännvinsbord and smörgåsbord custom.
Read at Tasting Table
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]