The Furr’s buffet chain is recasting its restaurants as “marketplaces” that provide food and beverages in a variety of ways, from all-you-can-eat table service to retail sales of hot and chilled prepared meals and basic grocery items.
The restaurants, renamed Furr’s All You Can Eat Marketplaces, will also serve as ghost kitchens for other concepts owned by Vitanova Brands. Those sister brands include Zio’s Italian Kitchen, Don Pablo’s Cantina, Tahoe Joe’s Express, Sushi Zushi and Hops Wings & Burger Bar. Signatures of those chains will be offered from the Marketplaces solely for delivery and takeout.
The changeover will enable Furr’s, a 74-year-old chain, to reopen stores while abiding by state-mandated precautions against coronavirus. Virtually every state where restaurants have been permitted to re-open dining rooms has specified that buffets cannot function as they did pre-pandemic because the self-service format requires guests to share serving utensils and mill about a common food bar. Health officials worry that social distancing cannot be maintained under that set-up.
Utah recently gave a go-ahead for buffets to offer self-service again, but it is an exception.
Many buffet concepts have adopted cafeteria-style service or limited table service to meet safety guidelines. Furr’s is promising guests the unlimited portions for which the brand is known, with the added advantage of having someone bring the food to them. Its new slogan is, “All you can eat without leaving your seat.” The array of foods and the pricing will vary from location to location, according to Vitanova.
The units will also function as quasi-grocery stores, with a retail area sporting heat-and-eat chilled meals and ready-to-eat hot selections for at-home consumption. Included are family sized orders of sides.
Vegetables, milk, dry goods and other supermarket staples are also available.
“As people are more conscious of their trips outside of their homes, we’ve developed a one-stop-shop,” Furr’s Marketing Manager Misty Moren said in a statement.
Eleven locations have been converted to the Marketplace format. Three are functioning as ghost kitchens for sister brands, a function marketed separately under the name Togo Kitchens, with plans for 30 more to open within 90 days, according to Vitanova.
Five Furr’s locations remain temporarily closed, according to the chain’s website.
Vitanova is also the parent of three other buffet brands: Homestyle, Ryan’s and Old Country.
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