This piece, for the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy, has been on my mind since 1991. I’m not kidding when I say that Golden Corral is one of my favorite restaurants of all time. No place makes me happier or more nostalgic for the times when I was unsure of where I might fit in, in the South, in America, in my own body - and how this was the place where I felt the best. Where class and immigration status melted away.
And no place gives me as much fried chicken, fried okra, rice, gravy, cucumbers with ranch and yeast rolls with honey butter. And views of people that are having as wonderful a time as I am.
May 11, 1994; Fayetteville, NC, USA; Esther Swiderski, a waitress with Golden Corral for the past 20 years, jokes with Angela Bullard and Monica Jones.
My 44th Birthday Party at Golden Corral in Puyallup, WA