Report: Popular Florida Buffet Restaurant Chain Closing Permanently

Restaurants in Florida were given the green light to begin reopening this week. But there's one that is calling it a day and they are all over Florida: Sweet Tomatoes. It makes sense given customers all touch the same utensils and are in such close contact with all the food on display.  The company actually got its start in California as "Souplantation." The expanded to Florida in 1990 as Sweet Tomatoes. They had several locations here in the Tampa Bay area in Tampa, Largo, Brandon, and Palm Harbor. The restaurant offered an endless buffet with salads, pasta, soup, pizza, baked potato and soft service ice cream.

The San Diego Tribute reports the company was already seeing a big drop in revenue years before COVID-19. But the spread of coronavirus appears to be the lethal blow. One analyst said the new standards and regulations would make it impossible for the restaurant to operate, saying these type of restaurants "do not fit into the new reality." [Source: San Diego Tribune]

Let me show you around Detroit, New York City and Chicago... without leaving Hillsborough and Pinellas County.

If you're up to do some traveling, here are some of my other favorites...