No-Carb Eating Couple Booted From Buffet for Eating Too Much Beef (Chuck-A-Rama incident)

AP ^ | april 23,2004

[nuconvert]

No-Carb Eating Couple Booted From Buffet for Eating Too Much Beef

Apr 23, 2004

The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A couple on a low-carb diet were kicked out of a buffet restaurant after the manager said they'd eaten too much roast beef. Sui Amaama, who along with his wife have been on the Atkins Diet for two weeks, was "It's so embarrassing actually," said Isabelle Leota, Amaama's wife. "We went in to have dinner, we were under the impression Chuck-A-Rama was an all-you-can-eat establishment."

Not so, said Jack Johanson, the restaurant chain's district manager.

"We've never claimed to be an all-you-can-eat establishment," said Johanson. "Our understanding is a buffet is just a style of eating."

The general manager who was carving the meat Tuesday became concerned about having enough for other patrons and asked Amaama to stop, Johanson said.

Offended, the couple asked for a refund. The manager refused and called police when they would not leave.

The couple said they have eaten at Chuck-A-Rama's $8.99 buffet at least twice a week, but did not plan to return.

[jagrmeister]

Businesses have a responsibility of setting and meeting expectations. Buffets are presumed to be all-you-can-eat. If otherwise, they should indicate that. Arbitrarily stepping in and limiting what one can take is not an equitable way of conducting business.

[Caipirabob]

Even on Atkins or Zone, don't the portions range from 3 to 6 ounces?

[Kerberos]

"I"m with you,they should sue,and I usually hate frivolous lawsuits."

I guess it's going to come down to what the meaning of "buffet" is.

12 slices of roast beef, makes me wonder what this guy must weigh. Another poster was correct in that the manager here is an idiot. He single handedly was able to get front page, national bad publicity.

[Coleus]

When I was growing up, I once had 15 slicesof prime rib at a place in the FL keys.

[nuconvert]

: 0

[weegee]

Just Damn

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1123535/posts

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

LOL! I remember the routine! Who is that guy?

[xm177e2]

The manager is acting like an idiot.

Two people simply could not clean out a buffet for the whole night.

But if they eat $10 worth of roast beef on $8.99 tickets, he is losing money. He does have a right to prevent that (although he should have let them finish eating before barring them from returning).

[supercat]

But if they eat $10 worth of roast beef on $8.99 tickets, he is losing money. He does have a right to prevent that (although he should have let them finish eating before barring them from returning).

It is expected in many businesses that not every customer will represent a profit. Further, I'm curious as to your guess as to the per-slice weight and the per-pound cost of the meat.

[jude24]

I had some friends go to an all-you-can-eat chinese resturaunt, eat several massive plates of sesame chicken. The guy comes over, gives them their fortune cookie, and says, "You done now."

"But its all-you-can-eat."

"That's all you can eat."

[Paulus Invictus]

There's got to be a reason some people call it UpChuckaRama.

[xm177e2]

I have no idea. It really depends on how thick the slices were, I guess. What would the meat be, $5/lb once cooking costs are included? If they each had 1lb, and drank $.25 worth of soda, and occupied a table (which has to be cleaned up after), they could come close to the $9s in costs mark. If they had 1.5lbs, they could easily have been unprofitable to the business.

[RochesterFan]

I had some friends go to an all-you-can-eat chinese resturaunt, eat several massive plates of sesame chicken. The guy comes over, gives them their fortune cookie, and says, "You done now."

These your same buddies that closed down the "all you can eat" Ponderosa steak buffet by eating 12 eight oz steaks????

[jude24]

Yeah...

they don't do that anymore....

[RochesterFan]

I'm surprised they survived the first time. That's 6 lbs of meat. Makes me sick to think about it...

[jude24]

They hadnt eaten for roughly a day and a half beforehand.

[Cultural Jihad]

Entirely agree. The restaurant is a private business and no one has a right to demand unpaid service. From the article, it seems like the manager asked the couple to cease their demands for unpaid food, but they chose to cause a scene and became unwelcomed to the point that the police had to extricate them from the premises. Whether the dieting couple or the restaurant can claim to be the defrauded party is up to a court of law to decide.

[supercat]

//I have no idea. It really depends on how thick the slices were, I guess. What would the meat be, $5/lb once cooking costs are included? If they each had 1lb, and drank $.25 worth of soda, and occupied a table (which has to be cleaned up after), they could come close to the $9s in costs mark. If they had 1.5lbs, they could easily have been unprofitable to the business.// First off, almost every business expects, or should expect, that it will lose money serving some customers. So even if this couple did cost the business money, that would not justify treating them rudely.

Secondly, it didn't say how much the wife ate, but the man and his wife spent $17.98 for the buffet. If the net cost of the meat is $5/lb (which seems high to me), that would suggest that the man could have had two or even three pounds of meat without costing the restaurant more than his price of admission. Unless the Chuck-A-Rama serves unusually large slices of meat in its buffet, twelve slices wouldn't be that much (12x2oz is 1.5lbs; 12x3oz is 2.25lbs; 12x4oz is 3.0lbs).

Thirdly, there are many better ways the manager could have handled the situation (indeed, many managers probably face similar situations but because they're well-handled they don't make news). He could have simply started giving smaller slices. He could have offered to specially prepare something else for the couple (I've seen some buffets where there aren't any vegetables prepared suitably for Atkins dieters; if that was the case here, an offer by the manager to e.g. boil some beans without a carb-laded sauce could possibly have improved customer satisfaction while saving the restaurant money). At worst, he could have [in the event the couple really was costing the restaurant significant money--which I doubt] informed them that his restaurant was really not designed to cater to their appetites and offered them a dollar or two discount in exchange for a promise not to return.

BTW, I fail to understand those who say that "buffet" doesn't mean "all you can eat" but is just a "style of eating". What exactly does that mean?

In the case of discretely-catered events, it's true that common courtesy suggests people should limit their food consumption based upon the amount of food available, most typically by delaying "seconds" until most people have had their "firsts", and delaying "thirds" until most people who want "seconds" have had them, etc. But in such events, the organizer typically pays for a certain amount of food and it is accepted that any amount of food, up to all of it, may be consumed. If all but one person has had as much as they care to, there's is nothing discouretous about that person finishing what's left.

In a case such as this restaurant, however, those guidelines don't apply. The restaurant presumably prepares food during the course of a day, and adjusts the amount of food prepared according to the amount eaten. In the absense of a clearly-indicated policy to the contrary (e.g. as with a "one-trip salad bar" or a buffet which charges by weight) an "all you can eat" policy can usually be presumed.

[ErnBatavia]

I"m with you,they should sue

I think somebody should sue anybody who'd name a restaurant "Chuck-A-Rama" (when I read that in the thread title, I was assuming Barf Alert.