Pinching pennies at Ryan's Grill, Buffet & Bakery
By CHARLES FERRUZZA
Long before I became a professional restaurant reviewer -- in fact, when I was so dead broke that I was washing clothes in my sink -- I still ate at restaurants. Even if the place wasn't fancy, eating out was a little bit of luxury that I indulged in simply to feel special in a hard-knock world.
In those days, I could barely afford to eat in Putsch's Cafeteria, but I did, because it was often the only decent hot meal I had all week. If I had enough extra dough for a piece of coconut cream pie, it was really a good week.
That brings me to the current economic climate and how we've just got to support our local restaurants -- the good, the bad and the ugly.
Call it a coincidence, but an inexpensive chain restaurant that I almost never think about came up twice in conversations last week. The first time was when a stockbroker – once a regular at the Capital Grill -- told me his income had taken such a plunge that he was going to have to start eating at Ryan’s Grill, Buffet & Bakery instead. He wasn’t laughing.
The following day, another friend told me he had been eating lunch at the Ryan’s Grill, Buffet & Bakery in Independence and the waitress told him that the economy was so bad, it was even hurting their business. Say what? Ryan's is one of the least costly restaurants in the metro.
I never thought I’d live to hear Ryan’s Grill and the Capital Grill in the same sentence. My frugal friend Franklin told me that the low-budget meals at Ryan’s were one of the ways he was keeping body and soul together.
“You can get a complete dinner, as much as you can eat, for about $13 including drink, tax and tip. If you really fill up, you can even skip breakfast the next morning.”
That was the same kind of logic my grandparents used during the Great Depression, when they chose low-cost cafeterias over nicer restaurants. The food wasn’t fancy, but portions were plentiful and you rarely had to leave a tip. Well, they didn't anyway.
Their lifelong love for cafeterias rubbed off on me, although a classic cafeteria is getting harder to find -- unless you travel to the lovably bizarre Clifton's in downtown Los Angeles.
I still like cafeterias. Buffets too. So to do a little investigative work, I joined Franklin and snobby Truman for dinner at that Ryan’s in Independence one night. It’s a more abundant buffet than I expected (definitely better than the costlier one at Harrah’s) and what it lacks in glamor it makes up for in bulk. And yes, I’m talking about some of the customers too.
One of the managers confirmed to me that business had fallen “a good 20 percent” until the restaurant had mailed out a “buy one, get one for $4.99” coupon and lured the hungry faithful right back. It’s a dumpy place, but the food’s better than average. The fried chicken -- a staple of these "home-style buffets" -- was disappointingly greasy and salty. Awful, actually. But I loved the Salisbury steak smothered in onions and all the Southern-style side dishes: collard greens, fried okra, creamy mac-and-cheese, spicy barbecued baked beans.
Even Truman, an insufferable foodie, shocked me by liking everything he ate. “The fake crab salad is delicious – I’m serious! The pot roast is just like Mama’s. And this steak couldn’t be more tender!”
“That’s not a steak,” I told him. “It’s a pork chop.”
“It is? Well, it’s just as good as a chop in some Plaza restaurant! Now if only they served martinis, this place would be perfect!”
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