"On the Strip in Selinsgrove" (State College, Sunbury: credit, house)

[fuzzy]

Any updates on the new restaurant? Went past today, and not a soul in sight.

[Dawne]

There was an article in the paper (Sunday, I think) that said the Golden Grill would be opening "in a few weeks". It mentioned that several restaurants are looking at the old Ruby Tuesday location. Aaron's (in the old Rag Shop) should be opening around June 17 or 19 (I forget the exact date). The old Four Seasons restaurant will be up for auction soon.

So finally, some activity on the strip!

[fuzzy]

I read the article in the paper. Hopefully this means the economy is ready to turn!

[BevoInPA]

I have to drive up that way for work about every month. It is depressing that so much retail space was developed for such a small metro area. I noticed Value City is gone. If it is not yet I predict the Kmart will be gone. At the end of the day you will have a Walmart and a Target.

The empty spaces will become start-up churches, thrift stores, dollar stores, or call centers. The former Giant will probably end up a call center for a collections agency.

[LeeMar]

Golden Grill OPENED TODAY.................

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by BevoInPA

...so much retail space was developed for such a small metro area.

That's something I've puzzled over too. Why would Target, for example, locate there (what's it, maybe 45 minutes to the Lycoming Mall power center area, including 15 minutes sitting in Norry), and not in, let's say, Cumberland MD?

[Dawne]

This area draws shoppers from Snyder, Union and Northumberland counties (and sometimes also Juniata, Miffling and Perry) so the stores are centrally located for those counties. Usually they seem to do well. Our Kmart survived the closing of a lot of Kmarts a couple years ago and even expanded. Value City was lost because the chain went under or turned into Burlington outlets, as the one in the Lycoming Mall did. I just wish we could get a Sam's Club in this area.

I did notice last night when we drove by that the Golden Grill's parking lot was FULL at 7:00 p.m.

[Dawne]

Well, we ate at the Golden Grill and Buffet last night. There are five in my family. My oldest is 16 so he pays adult prices. With three adults and two kids, four sodas and one water, our total bill was $50.15!!! Pricewise, for buffets, I think we'll stick with Bonanza.

I'm hoping that the issues we encountered were just glitches until they hit their stride. They certainly seemed to be unorganized. First of all, there was no silverware. A blonde woman, who seemed to be either the manager or the owner, said she had left for an hour and nothing got done. She asked several employees to refill the silverware (most of which was sitting behind the cash register in plain sight) and it took about ten minutes before we had enough spoons and knives for five people.

I ordered diet Pepsi and the machine kicked. It took three people (one of whom ended up cut and bleeding) to change it over. During all the confusion, I gave the rest of our drink orders to at least three different people at least six different times. We finally got our drinks. Then we got to the cash register and it was turned off. The blonde woman at first said she didn't have the key, then about a minute later found it in her pocket. The plate area had a small stack of plates and they handed us four. I said we needed five. (They did bring extra plates to the table several times and refilled our drinks as needed.) I had paid (somewhat concernedly) with a credit card, but fortunately that went through well. Oh, and when we took napkins, they were on a stack but all connected so we ended up with this huge waterfall of napkins. The blonde woman yelled to someone, "These are the wrong napkins." Obviously they were supposed to be in a dispenser and not lying on the counter. Most of the employees were yelling to each other in a language other than English, which doesn't bother me but annoys the heck out of my husband.

We just ordered the buffet. There were various steaks and other meats available, written on a whiteboard with prices that I thought were probably normal for upscale dining, but seemed high for this area, and especially for a buffet. There were three buffet tables open. The food was certainly kept hot, as the steam steamed up my glasses even through the sneeze guard.

There were lots of variations of chicken. Most of the dishes were not under the correct handwritten labels on the sneeze guards. They had a very good chicken potpie and my kids pronounced the macaroni and cheese to be "the best". There was also ham, pot roast, and different seafoods and pastas. The pizza looked like it had been there since lunch, and the rolls were cold. There was a cold salad buffet and two hot buffets. The food I got was very good, although I didn't sample everything. They had some cakes and cupcakes and cookies for dessert, and some hand dipped Hershey's ice cream, I think 8 or 10 flavors. You had to wait a while for someone to come dip it for you, though. There were toppings available.

The dining room furniture was all new. The inside front doors are very pretty and the restroom area on the outside is more attractive. No one in our group used the restrooms. I thought about just checking out the ladies' room to see if they'd improved it but I didn't. I know when it was Golden Corral and later Great American Steak and Buffet, the ladies' room gave me the creeps. Hopefully it's better now.

I hope they get their bugs worked out and are successful. However, after our experience and the price, we probably will not return, at least not for many months.

[fuzzy]

Dawne, I agree with you, coward that I am, I did not want to be the first to post about my experience with the new restaurant! I think the Golden Corral was actually better, the hubby and I ate threre last Friday night, and they were completely out of silverware then to. I did not think that there was an awful lot on the buffet. The bathroom shows no improvement over the Corral, still gives one the heebie jeebies! When I was in the bathroom, they were completely out of paper towels. I went up to get soup, and there was another woman also getting some soup, and she made the comment that she had to mix some spaghetti noodles down in the soup to make it into something besides water. Like you, I will not be returning for awhile. Hope its just bugs they are working out, but I have my doubts.

[sunsetcliff]

all microwave food...

pre-cooked. ...junk.


and no the economy is not getting better. See my other posts for more. The Daily Item is dropping the ball.

Off shore bankers take over- and in 3 years we will be 3rd world country.

End the fed- polish up the guillotines.