The Importance Of Being Greedy

In Downey, Calif., a man in his early 20s went through the prime-ribs line seven times at Marmac's, a restaurant that provides an unlimited amount of roast beef for only $3.50. If the evening was a total loss for Marmac's, it was for the customer too. He wound up in a hospital, having his stomach pumped out. But less than a week later, he was back in the beef line at the same restaurant.

The Downey episode is just one of many similar instances of gluttony that occur daily across the U.S. in an ever-increasing number of "all-you-can-eat" restaurants. Apart from regulars, like the dainty little old lady who routinely gobbles 20 pieces of fried chicken (for only $1.55) on each visit to Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Los Angeles, gluttons have only their appetites in common and are difficult to identify at a glance. Manager Edward White of Manhattan's Stockholm Restaurant (unlimited smorgasbord for $6.95) still shudders when he remembers the tall, beautifully groomed woman who ravaged his 85-dish buffet. With exquisite technique but total nondiscrimination, she forked slabs of roast beef atop heaps of shrimp, added globs of Swedish meatballs and salted herring, then ladled a quart or so of Russian dressing over the mess. "It looked like an exploding volcano," says White, "and she repeated three or four times." On her next visit, some customers, sickened by the sight of the orgy, began to complain, and White politely told the woman she was welcome no longer.

Considerably easier to detect was the mob of high school kids who descended on a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Spring Valley, N.Y. They arrived on chicken night (unlimited amount for $1.69) and devoured 360 pieces of chicken (about 90 lbs.), along with salad and rolls, before vanishing into the night. Another easy-to-spot glutton was the "gigantic man" who waddled into a Sir George's Smorgasbord House branch in the San Fernando Valley. He opened with 2 lbs. of salad, then reduced a chicken to rubble, inhaled two plates of roast beef, and washed it all down with milk. Then he thoughtfully wiped his plate clean with half a loaf of bread, paid his $2.50 check and left. (Inexplicably, he passed up dessert.) Jack LeFever, a vice president of Sir George, while denying that the huge customer was responsible, reports that most of the restaurants in the chain have since stopped advertising its all-you-can-eat come-on. "The policy remains the same," he says, "but we don't plug it any more."

The supreme challenge to gluttons is posed by the $10 Fiesta dinner offered by the Club El Bianco on Chicago's Southwest Side. The three-to four-hour Super Bowl of Gluttony begins with appetizers (bean salad, salami and pepperoni) and a vast antipasto tray, continues with soup, tossed salad, stuffed peppers, ribs, eggplant parmigiana, veal scallopini, chicken cacciatore and piles of pasta. Dessert includes pastries, fruit and cookies, followed by a nut cart. If anyone complains that he is still hungry, Manager Peter Bianco Jr. has a secret weapon that few could stomach: a huge submarine sandwich topped by a "Champion" trophy. "Nobody's finished the whole thing yet," says Bianco. "If anyone really has, he hasn't lived to talk about it."

Most restaurateurs suffer silently under a gourmand's assault, but they all frown on one particular variant, the Takeout Artist. At the Stockholm, for example, Manager White caught one soberly dressed couple making off with 4 lbs. of shrimp in a concealed plastic bag after they had finished dining. When White intercepted them, both complained angrily--and the woman dumped the smuggled shrimp on the floor at his feet. A pair of California counterculturists astounded the manager of Shakey's Pizza Parlor with the huge amounts of food they were putting away--until he found an excuse to open their guitar case and found 200 pieces of chicken stashed inside.

Still, the all-you-can-eat theme keeps spreading, and profits keep rolling in. Explains Larry Ellman, whose 37-unit Steak and Brew chain offers unlimited amounts of salad, drinks and bread with a modestly priced entree: "The person who eats too much is a fantastic advertisement for us, because he'll tell other people about his great buy." Fifteen Steak and Brew establishments are on the drawing boards, and further expansion seems to be limited only by the output of world agriculture. "We've never run out of food," boasts Robert Gladstone, manager of one of the Steak and Brews. "We let them eat as long as they want to."

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