Old Country Buffet (1983-2020): A chain of all-you-care-to-eat buffet restaurants, offering "traditional" American comfort foods such as roast turkey, meatloaf, fried chicken, and an array of desserts. Sales began declining in the 2010s, and it became a pandemic casualty.

Known for mediocre-to-awful food and much better weirdo-watching than the airport.

My only time there, I saw a kid get a dollop of mashed potatoes, then proceed to take his finger and scrape remaining potatoes off the community spoon, lick his finger, then repeat.

It was no duffs but I miss this and ponderosa if I’m being honest. Used to smash the Rosa after JV football games on a Saturday lol

Everybody line up at the slop feeding trough

I once worked a retail job sharing a dumpster with Old Country Buffet and the smells still haunt me to this day.

One of my favorite elementary school memories is, to celebrate the end of the school year, my 6th grade teacher took the whole class to Old Country Buffet. A bunch of us piled into the art teacher's van, and we blasted "Wild, Wild West" while singing along, before gorging ourselves on soft serve

At its peak, there were over 600 Old County Buffet locations nationwide!

OCB for the win. Salisbury steak for everyone!

I went to one in Minneapolis yonks ago and my only thought the whole time was "WHY DON'T WE HAVE THESE IN CALIFORNIA." It was a Shrine to Stodge. RIP.

Pouring one out for all the buffets and salad bars that didn't survive Covid.