After wandering around with a tour group all morning, when I took them back to their hotel, lo and behold, who should I espy in the restaurant but Robert and his Atlanta friend Jason! There they were at the Beacon Bar and Grill partaking of the all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink breakfast buffet.
We've gone to the Beacon Grill for a long time. That all-you-can-drink bloody Marys, mimosas, or champagne thing is a great deal. When we used to go, though, we would have our choice of half a dozen or so brunch entrée choices with no buffet, and it used to cost $17.95 per person. Then, for Easter 2005, they decided to have a buffet, and I guess it went well, because they converted the Sunday brunch to buffet only, increasing the price to $19.95. It was still a pretty good deal.
In the past year and a half, though, they raised the price to $21.95, and then today the price had inched up to $23.95. Now it's not quite such a good deal. What's more, a year ago, the buffet used to be impressive; today, though, the buffet was showing the financial pressures of all all-you-can-eat operations. The formerly impressive salad bar was down to two different lettuce salads and one mixed vegetables in vinaigrette dressing salad. The wide variety of meats and hot vegetables is down to one table and the second table has been replaced with an omelette bar. The bread table assortment is down to bakery muffins, danish, and croissants with no loaves of artisanal breads. The only egg dish on the buffet was an egg, peppers, and cheese casserole that was "thin" tasting and lacking richness (and if one didn't like green peppers, there was no alternative). Now, nothing here at the Beacon is actually bad now, but I'm just disappointed that not just one but both money and food changes are taking place, and a $30 brunch (with tax and tip) is no longer such a great deal.
Jason, however, loved the place. I guess they don't have good brunch places in Atlanta.
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