Rotating Smorgasboard
Does anyone else remember a restaurant that had a rotating buffet? I vaguely recall – going on a school trip back in the late 1980’s to a place that had a rotating buffet – the food went around and then back into the kitchen for the cooks to refill the bins… so, for example, if you wanted mashed potatoes you had to wait for them to come around again….. I’m pretty sure the one I went to was called Duff’s. Am I crazy, or does anyone else remember this?
pic via
Posted on March 28, 2017, in Amazing, Clever, Cool!, Foodstuffs, HIstory, Teens, Travel, USA, Weird. Bookmark the permalink. 31 Comments.
Deep Fried Bits 
How funny! A bit before my time, but it does remind me of conveyor belt sushi or dim sum, where you grab whichever plate passing by that looks good 🙂
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I absolutely remember this growing up. I lived in Louisiana at the time at it was a Duff’s restaurant. One small reason I was a fat kid!
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the restaurant was called “Duffs”. Homer and Stacey Duff had a large chain of them. they went through a divorcee and she got have of the stores. She called her`s “Stacey`s” and his became “Hometown Buffet”.
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Wow. Thank you for the info. The one in heath ohio became a Stacey’s. I wonder why they all closed now 😦
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Stacey is Homer and Wilma Duff’s daughter, not his wife. They did get divorced but they didn’t divide the restaurants and rename them. They sold out Duff’s and the new owner’s bankrupted the whole thing. Most of the restaurants were franchised. Homer got back a number of restaurants and opened them up under his daughters name “Stacey”. Hometown Buffet was never part of Duff’s. I’ve known Homer since the mid 70’s and built most of the food lines in all the Duff’s.
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Yes. There was a place called duff’s. Had this type of buffet table. Wish it was still around. Remember it as a child. Thought it was so cool to stand there and the food cane to you !!!
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Yes!! Was just listening to old Billy Ocean songs on You Tube!! Ha ha….Brought me back to when I was a kid in the 80’s. The thought of that spinning buffet table came to mind and yes….Duff’s it is!
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Yep …it was in Fort Lauderdale Florida…it was called Duff’s…I was there in 1988.
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Oh good I thought I was going crazy because no one remembers a buffet like this either. I always thought it was called Dove’s but Duff’s would make sense. My memory is bad but I do remember going to a rotating buffet when I was a tiny kid.
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Wow I someone asked on Facebook if anyone remember duffs and I lived by one in Monroeville pa and they had the rotating buffet I was trying to find pictures and you got one.the best part was people at the edge where food went back and the didn’t get the spoon back in food before it went behind the wall.
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yes. it was duff’s, i thought it was so fun as a kid. they don’t have the rotating buffets anymore though. 😦
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I remember Duffs quite well, I used to go to the one in Alton, IL all the time with my parents in the early to mid 80’s. They had one or two revolving buffets and one that didn’t rotate, the desert bar didn’t rotate either… It was a great place, I always loved going there. I got married to my wife when I was 18 around 1990 or 1991 and I took her there only to discover they had been closed. I was sad to see it go.
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We had one here in suburban Milwaukee. I thought it made great sense to do it that way since the staff could keep an eye on the food without running back and forth carrying the food to restock the buffet. Surprised other buffet type places didn’t adopt it.
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I do remember duffs. It was where the standard bank is now, below shogun, in Monroeville PA.
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Oh my gosh I totally remember that! It seemed huge to me back then but I was like 8. We would go there on the way to Chicago from St.Louis Mo. I assume it was off 55 and I’m pretty sure you’re right about the name! Duffs. Good times.
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Yesssss!!! I thought I was imagining things too! We had one in Montgomery, AL! Thank you so much for the pic!!
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Harold is wrong, Duff’s is in no way, shape or form related to Hometown Buffet, a separate chain with different owners. Duff’s may have been replaced by Hometown/Old Country (sister chains after their mid-90’s merger), but Duff’s was indepenedent of them.
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I remember this, I was thinking about this the other day and asked my mom about it, she thought I was crazy and didn’t remember that at all, but I remember that we went there several times! it was weird how you had to wait in the slot for the food to rotate so you could spoon some on your plate.
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I remember. Loved this place as a kid
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My dad bought the Circl-serv company back in the early 90’s– yes, Duff’s had these. There was also one at the Smithsonian, one at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center, one in a hospital in Dallas, one in a hospital in Kalamazoo— There was one Village Inn restaurant in Conroe TX that had one. The company went out of business, and the plans and designs were never sold off, finally disposed of. I got to crawl under a few as a kid, hauling roller wheels in and out for servicing. I still have some sneezegaurds from one, but that’s about all that remains.
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There was a Duffy’s smorgasbord in Liberty Ohio in the 1980’s
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I remember duffs
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I definitely remember Duff’s Smorgasboard with the rotating buffet in Sandusky, OH in the early to mid-eighties. I wonder if your school trip was at Cedar Point or Put-N-Bay.
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Jim C is right, Duff’s was in no way connected to Hometown and Stacy is not Homer Duff’s wife, she is his daughter. Wilma Duff was Homer’s wife. I had a cabinet shop and I did the woodwork that went on the rotating food lines that went into the Duff’s Smorgasbord’s. I think there was 159 of them at one time. If Homer is still alive he is in his early 90’s by now. The company that actually built the rotating food line was B/W Metals in Fairfield, Ohio. Homer bought them when he started franchising.
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Yep. It existed. Recall visiting as a child with my vacations to the Florida panhandle. Rotating buffet counter. Soft-serve ice cream.
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Yes! Myrtle Beach had one in the 70’s/80’s called Duff’s Smorgasbord!! What a concept! I’m surprised they are not around anymore.
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Homer Duff sold out to an outfit called “Kelly/Johnson. It took them about a year to bankrupt the whole thing. Homer got back some of his restaurants and opened them up under the name “Stacy’s Buffet”, Stacy is his daughter. Some of Homer’s restaurants were named “Homer’s Original Smorgasbord”. I believe there are still some in business in Florida. There might still be a Duff Smorgasbord in Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee but Homer doesn’t own them, they were franchised.
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I found out Homer Duff is still alive and is 95 years old. He lives in Sebring, Florida. I think he still owns the restaurant in Sebring but I’m not sure what the name is. Probably Stacey’s or Homer’s Original Smorgasbord.
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Get stuffed at Duffs. I have fond fattening memories of the rotating wheel of pleasure.
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I also remember the Duff’s Smorgasbord in Myrtle Beach, S.C. it was a favorite of my cheapskate father, so eating there was an annual tradition of many years’ standing in the 1980s. Some of the customers weren’t quick enough on the draw (that conveyor may have moved a little too fast), so there would be sweet potatoes in the butter beans, pieces of country-style steak in the rice, and so forth. It wasn’t very appetizing.
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yes!!!! We loved going to Duffs.great childhood memories!!! It was so sad when they closed.
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