Groceteria.com

Anyone remember the Golden Corral restaurants circa 70's through early 90s, with its Wild-West style exterior (and interior with prominent fiberboard ceilings) as well as signage font?

It would be interesting to see if any of these survived the 90s and 2000s remodeling campaigns and still exist as Golden Corrals?

Henderson, Texas still has one of these restaurants, with the lower sloped roof. Essentially, it looked like a reversed Western Sizzlin. It opened in 1979.

There are several 80's versions of these as well, including Abbeville, LA that are still open.

Coincidentally, I had my first New England Clam Chowder in Henderson, TX. It's the best buffet item they have.

I love that chowder. I love Golden Corral as a whole really.

The current business model is so different from what it was in the old days that it's almost ridiculous to try and do it in the older buildings.

Boone, Iowa is an early 80's design that labors on...the only one in the state...though a number of the old buildings still stand housing other businesses today.

One REAL oddity was Ankeny, Iowa, a 1982 build that burned down in 2000 or 2001. The franchisee actually convinced Golden Corral to let them rebuild the original building design. It was exactly the same dimension, but with the newer style siding and windows. They gave it the new interior, scuttled a lot of seating space for buffet room (STILL smaller than modern GC's), quickly sold it to another franchisee, closed down, re-opened under another franchisee, closed down...

Now it's Bandana's BBQ, which honestly was a pretty nice trade-off. LOVE their smoked sausage. One of Bandana's servers worked at the Golden Corral for years. I think she's been serving me since she was in high school. She has multiple kids now.

One REAL oddity was Ankeny, Iowa, a 1982 build that burned down in 2000 or 2001. The franchisee actually convinced Golden Corral to let them rebuild the original building design.

Wouldn't it be nice if retailers would bring back some of the classic retro designs that made their stores or restaurants a famous part of Americana?

I had never heard of Golden Corral until this discussion. Now they're opening a location near me in Hesperia, CA. When did they first come to the state, or to the West at all? I only see 3 locations in California and none in NV on their website.

Golden Corral started out in Fayetteville, NC and is now headquartered in Raleigh. However to the above question, I don't know when they started to expand out West.

javelin wrote:I had never heard of Golden Corral until this discussion. Now they're opening a location near me in Hesperia, CA. When did they first come to the state, or to the West at all? I only see 3 locations in California and none in NV on their website.

One just opened up in Elk Grove in the last year or two; I noticed it on my way to Tulare last Saturday.