Old Country Buffet
Comfort and food
Old Country Buffet is the name of a buffet chain with restaurants scattered across the United States. The closest one to my hometown was about an hour’s drive away, in a city called Eau Claire. Located in a long white building just off the highway, the place was pretty dingy but always busy with people — back when buffets were still popular. The chain isn’t doing so well anymore. The owners have filed for bankruptcy a few times, and there were a few cases of food poisoning for people who ate there. The one located in Eau Claire is closed now. I guess they weren’t paying their rent. When I was about 10, back when the restaurant was still open, my dad would take my sister and me to eat there nearly every week. On his days off work and our weekends off school, we’d drive with him down to Eau Claire. But we weren’t just going there every week to eat Old Country Buffet, we were going down to visit my grandma.
My grandma lived in the house with us when I was younger. At our family restaurant, she was the big chef flipping woks all day until my dad started to take over. Once she stopped working, she’d watch TV with my sister and me in the break room or stay at home with us after school was out. But when I was around 9 or 10, her health started to decline and it became hard for her to be alone anymore. My sister and I were way too young to take care of her, and my parents were busy every day at work, so they had to put her in a nursing home. But the hospital that specialized in her needs was an hour away, so she had to be in a nursing home across the street from it. On the weekends, we would drive down to go visit her.
We wouldn’t do much when we went to see her, basically just talked to her and kept her company. On good days she would say a few words back. Some days it was clear she wasn’t doing as well as others. My dad would wheel her to the living area where my sister and I could sit nearby and watch cartoons or play board games. The nurses were all pretty nice to us, and we even got to know some of the other residents there, but I know how my dad feels about nursing homes. I wish had been old enough to help. I was too young to understand what was going on then.
Afterward, for lunch, my dad would take us to Old Country Buffet. It was just down the street from the nursing home, so most of the time we went there. Plus it was all you can eat and kids got a discount. I didn’t age for a few years.
The dining area was carpeted and the buffet bar area had reddish-brown tiles. A huge soda station sat in the middle. For salads, you would grab the clear plates, and for everything else use the colorful plates. Our routine went like this: find seats, wash hands, drinks at the soda fountain, salads first, entrees for 2-3 more rounds, and then ice cream. Sure, it was a lot of food for pretty cheap, but I know the real reason my dad took us there all the time.
Some days, Old Country Buffet would serve up roast beef. At the end of the bar, a worker wearing all white would stand in front of a huge chunk of meat. Wielding a fork and knife, he’d greet customers and slice them up a hefty chunk of pink, tender meat. After his salad, my dad would go straight there to get himself a chunk of that roast beef. He’d show me his plate every time and announce, “Roast beef,” as if I didn’t already know. We always left the place with full bellies.
In a lot of ways, Old Country Buffet embodies what comfort food means to me. On the one hand, thinking about eating there now scares me a little, on the other, my memories of eating there remind me of my grandma. Old Country Buffet and the nursing home, happy and sad. In times like these, even roast beef at a shitty buffet can make you feel like royalty.
