History
In 1971, James Maynard and William F. Carl conceived the idea that became Golden Corral after several unsuccessful attempts to acquire a franchise with other companies. Golden Corral was incorporated in 1972 and the first Golden Corral Family Steak House opened on January 3, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The company has since expanded to over 480 locations across the United States; about 103 of them are company-owned. The others are franchised stores. Gross sales are over $1.53 billion.
The company had more than 500 restaurants by 1987. That year, they decided to begin franchising by licensing 55 distressed restaurants to their most successful general managers. Because of poor training, nationwide concerns about the consumption of red meat, and a shift in market shares to upscale restaurants, sales were falling. The company added salad bars to all of its location, sacrificed seating in most, and in others sacrificed part of the parking lot to make an addition to the building.
In 1991, the first seven "Metro Market" concept restaurants opened. They were 10,000 square feet (930 m2) and seated between 400 and 450 guests. These new Golden Corral restaurants more than doubled the size of the old, which were typically 5,000 square feet (460 m2) with a guest capacity of 175. There was the addition of the Brass Bell Bakery, named for the brass bell which rang every 15 minutes to signal that fresh bread, rolls, and pastries were coming out of the oven. An expanded buffet, dubbed the Golden Choice Buffet, was also added, which had a new layout to showcase its items. The location of these new restaurants, the majority of which were in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and North Carolina, was also a change for the company, moving away from small towns and into metropolitan areas. In 2001, system-wide annual sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time. As of 2008, there were 485 restaurants in 41 states. In April 2009, Golden Corral entered New England with a restaurant in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The company's most recent restaurant concept, called "Strata", was rolled out during the mid-2000s in an effort to bring more of the food preparation into view of the guests. In all locations, guests serve themselves, including requesting made-to-order items such as Belgian waffles, omelets and char-broiled steaks.
Many locations offer a To-Go service, which allows customers to pack anything they want into a To-Go container and then pay for it by the pound. Many restaurants also offer reserved parking.
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