Tag: restaurant

review of America 13-50 restaurant

Today some of the Buffet o’ Blog staff had lunch at a fairly new restaurant called “America 13-50“.  It’s a somewhat odd name, but that doesn’t matter to us.   This was our first time to dine at this establishment, and there weren’t many other patrons there, so we decided to post a review so more of you know about it.

America 13-50 is located downtown, across the street from Larry’s Pizza.  (If you live in Conway, you should know where Larry’s Pizza is.  If not, you’ve really been missing out and you need to go eat there at lunch during the week to enjoy their “pizza parade”.)  The inside of the restaurant was nice-looking, making me initially wonder if this was going to be an expensive lunch.  Fortunately the prices were reasonable.

Two of us ordered the Alamo Burger, which has bacon and chipotle mayo, and the menu calls it “a two handed beefy burger you’ll remember”.  The other guy ordered the Ozark BLT, which was a blackened catfish sandwich with bacon (which is not something we’d ever heard of before).  They were all delicious, and the portions were generously-sized.  We all talked of going back to try other items on the menu.

I realize this post wasn’t all that funny or random, so it kinda doesn’t fit with this blog.  But it was about food, which is an important subject among the staff.   If you’re itching for something funny (or at least ironic), here’s a food-related quote for you:

America has more food to eat than any other country in the world and more diets to keep us from eating it.

Ain’t that the truth!

Anyway, check out the restaurant.  You could tell them Buffet o’ Blog sent you, except they wouldn’t know who that was — we were incognito, protecting our secret identities.   I don’t think the waitress was prepared to handle the full outburst of randomness that can erupt from a group of us.   So we kept it on the down-low, to maintain some degree of order.  But what are we doing maintaining order?  We’re supposed to promote randomness.  True, that is.  But some people can’t handle the randomness (hence the warning under the title of the blog).   Some folks have to be eased into it, or their mind may implode (and that’s not pretty).   So it was for the greater good of those involved.

Now you’ve got me to rambling (which is what you wanted, right?).   Just check out the restaurant, and perhaps you’ll see us there.  Don’t worry if you don’t know us by face — if you see a table of the coolest guys you’ve ever seen, that would be us.

ideas for new Mexican restaurant

One of my friends recently started a new Mexican restaurant, and I was given the opportunity to make suggestions for new food combinations, along with ideas for entertainment and promotions.  I have some ideas, but I’d like to hear what things you’d like to have in a restaurant.  I figure we don’t need to list the qualities that all restaurants should have, like cleanliness, affordability, tasty food, etc.  But if you had the opportunity to add items to the menu, what would you choose?  (For me, there needs to be more items with bacon and/or cheese dip added.)

If you have any good, innovative ideas, you can share them in a comment.  Funny ideas are welcome, too.  Let’s think outside the box.  Surprise me.

today’s lunch at a Chinese buffet

Today I had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant, and when we got to our table, we noticed a woman lying in the floor with a man crouched by her.  This gave me pause about eating there, but it turns out she just hadn’t taken her medicine and was fainting.  On the way out she fell down again.  Poor lady… she should’ve eaten more to gain some strength.  I would’ve gladly demonstrated how much one should eat there (to get your money’s worth, of course), but she left when I was getting started.  I went ahead with the demonstration, though, just in case someone else was watching and not sure if they should get that second plate or not…

I noticed on the buffet this time they had some chicken strips, where were actually pretty good.  But what amused me about it was the name above them :

CHICKEN STRIP

Without the plurality, it makes you think of it with a Chinese accent or in Ebonics.  “I’m gonna go get me some more of them chicken strip.”  (Yeah, sometimes I’m amused by simple things…  I try to enjoy life everywhere I’m at.)

And one typical characteristic of Chinese food holds true again today — just a few hours later, I’m hungry again.  So now I’m eagerly waiting for my next eating adventure.  🙂

a new promotional idea for restaurants

I thought of a great marketing scheme for restaurants that have foods with a particular olfactory “signature”.  By that, I mean they have a certain recognizable smell that makes people think of that restaurant.  The example I will provide is Arby’s, where I ate earlier this week with some of the Buffet o’ Blog staff.  Their curly fries are scrumptious, and even the smell of them is good.

So I think places like Arby’s should give promotional (read: free or discounted) meals to a few folks at each company in town every so often, around 11:15, with the restrictions that they eat it at their desk.  Imagine the smell of Arby’s curly fries wafting over the cubicle walls, causing co-workers to drool over the appealing aroma.  This would surely increase sales at Arby’s, because some people would go that day because “it just sounds good” (even though they were unknowingly coerced), and some people would get the idea in their head and start looking for the next convenient time to stop by there.

I think this would work.  They spend a lot of money on TV commercials and other ads, and they have their place, but the smell of curly fries and one of their famous roast beef sandwiches would bring in more people, I think.  It’s easy to overlook TV commercials and radio jingles, but it’s difficult to put aside the idea of Arby’s after smelling those curly fries.

I volunteer the services of the entire Buffet o’ Blog staff (all 3 of us) to participate in this venture.  We will conduct market research and report the effectiveness of our campaign.  Arby’s just needs to provide the food on a recurring basis.  (So if any Arby’s rep is reading this, have your people contact my people.)