Home Town Buffet

For reasons that will become obvious I have chosen not to illustrate this anecdote with photos.

Recently, Carolyn and I visited the Home Town Buffet in North Highlands. The "find a location" on their website said this location was only a tenth of a mile farther than our usual Buffet in the Country Club mall. It based this on zip codes so I'm not sure where in Carmichael the two Buffets are roughly equidistant. (Good geometry problem. Left to the reader.)

We were impressed with their friendliness and cleanliness. It seemed lighter and quieter than our usual Buffet. We had chosen and table close to the drink island so I could get refills easier. But there was no noise or other inconvenience in sitting there, so much so that we had almost forgotten we were in a potentially noisy location.

Suddenly there was a whole lot of hubbub going on. We noticed a boy, probably 11 to 12 holding a large drink glass in front of him but instead of soda pop it was filled with something much more gross and it was overflowing. A woman, presumably his mother, was hovering around trying to do damage control but not sure which immediate task was most important.

She didn't have much time to think before three Buffet employees were on the scene: one directed boy and mom over to the restrooms, one began placing cones around the mess on the floor, and the third one suggested that if we wanted to move, he was there to expedite the move. Since we were no longer in any danger of collateral damage, we elected to stay.

As this man left, the woman who had coned off the area was now dumping a white powder all over the mess on the floor. We learned that it was simply salt. It looked like kosher salt. In any case this soon sopped up all the liquid so it could be easily swept up with a broom and dumped in the trash can on wheels. The woman disappeared for just a minute then returned with mop and water filled mop bucket. She expertly wielded the mop to clear up the remains of any mess on the floor.

The boy and his mother came back from the bathrooms rooking much the better for cleaning up a little. The cones were the only thing that indicate anything had happened and 10 minutes later even they were gone. It was good to see how well prepared the Buffet staff are. Congratulations, Home Town Buffet!