A friend sent me Elegy for the All-American, Asian-American Buffet, an article on the closure of an intergenerational crowd pleaser. Most states have instructed businesses to “discontinue self-serve food areas even after stay-at-home orders loosen”. This is the death knell for the buffet business model that has survived for decades. Author Anthony Kao noted that his phone flooded with “messages from friends lamenting the news”. When our local Illinois Sweet Tomatoes restaurant closed years ago, I shared the news with my Chinese family coast to coast. They consoled me then that when we visit in Southern California, we can indulge at the Souplantation there. Now even that will no longer host our family gatherings. Like Kao described, the buffet was a haven “for many Asian-American immigrant families, [as]the buffet allows children to indulge in copious amounts of pizza and hot wings, while Grandma can still eat her crab legs.” The buffet for immigrant families was a far less intimidating social environment than a sit-down Italian restaurant with multisyllabic pasta names. The buffet was for the Asian American immigrant families as the Jewish delis were for the Jewish community. As we cross the threshold of the second decade of the 21st century, the celebration of life there will always be remembered.
image downloaded from sweettomatoes.com
