Memories of Ryan's

After several weeks dealing with repairs on my computer I thought I would write about several broken restaurants that started off good then went bust. Ryan's was a steakhouse/buffet on West I-70 Drive which was one of those restaurants with a good start. Their buffet was large and the quality was better than most with their hot rolls taking center stage. I guess if you ate a lot of these good tasting rolls you would eat less food, thus Ryan's would make more profit. Our family went there several times a month through the few years Ryan's was opened and we noticed it going down hill towards the end. First the quality of the food went down such as more inedible stems in the green beans, the rolls became tasteless and dried out food was served that seemed to be too old for serving. There were staffing changes where they were less attentive to your needs and fewer wait staff in number. And the cleanliness of the restaurant changed drastically towards the end with dirty floors and piled up dishes sharing some empty tables. We just quit going because the quality was not there for the price of four people eating from the buffet.

Several interesting things happened at Ryan's worth noting. There was a Harley Davidson convention somewhere, it might of been in that town in South Dakota, but when we arrived the restaurant was full of rough and rowdy looking bikers dressed in their leather and tie dyed garb. I liked it because compared to them I was the skinniest guy there. These guys were huge, not just fat but huge, like from a bad biker movie of the 1960's. Even their women were large. All of them were well behaved and noticeably courteous so there were not any fights or other things expected of Hell's Angels. And on our last visit to Ryan's we had the pleasure of sitting next to a family who had a sick child. This kid whined and the parents talked loudly trying to please him. This kid finally threw up all over the table with the parents once again talking loudly to him. The wait staff did not seem to know what needed to be done and the parents did clean up the table. We were lucky because there was little odor, because the putrid food smell was coming from the buffet table, I believe it was a steamed fish dish. After throwing up the kid was fine and started eating. The parents, except for the little time it took to clean up the vomit, quieted down and continued eating. It was a fitting end for us and we never came back.