Buffet The Restaurant Slayer

Long ago, I was a student at a big university in Milan. Things were great, but sometimes lessons forced me into very short lunch breaks, and I have never been one for sandwiches, so on occasion I skipped lunch.

Until a place making sushi and Peruvian food opened near my university, one that offered an AYCE buffet at an insanely low rate. I tasted it out once, found it punched above its weight for the cost, and became a common destination for my quick lunches between lessons, especially as the rhythm intensified.

The idyll was broken when, one day, a server took me aside and told me that I “couldn’t stuff my face like that so often” and that I was putting the whole restaurant on the brink of bankruptcy. I felt both pretty bad about my eating habits and offended by the audacity of the guy, so I ate less than usual that day, but also decided to find another place to eat.

I was about to forgive them a few months later, but by then they had closed.

Some days, when I think back to those days, I wonder if I really pulled the mythical feat of putting a restaurant out of business by eating a lot.