MAY 19, 2000
Marijo Deitz Whitcomb (MDW) strikes me as a creative person, but I didn’t know just how creative she was until I saw her build a dessert at Royal Fork Buffet in Columbia Mall.
MDW calls herself Queen of Desserts, so I asked her to show me what she had. In the first place, she uses a soup mug rather than one of those small dessert dishes. She makes a bottom layer with a chocolate chip cookie if she can find one. She just loves those cookies. Last week, they were all gone, so she made her bottom layer of banana bread. Then she topped it with soft-serve ice cream and used some hot brown Betty dessert and a little cherry cobbler. This was followed by caramel sauce.
“Sometimes,” she confided, “I finish it off with sprinkles.”
MDW is a woman with a nice figure. I asked how she could eat desserts like that and stay so fit. Her answer: I walk a lot. Her approach to the Royal Fork Buffet is to start out with a nice big salad. Then she skips the hot tables and goes for the gold—the dessert. She wouldn’t eat like that at home, she says.
MDW’s approach to the buffet piqued my interest. I wonder what strategy other people have as they approach a buffet. I would like to hear from them by telephone or e-mail.
Outside of MDW and her husband, Kyle Whitcomb (KW), I didn’t see anyone I knew at the Royal Fork, except for Chad Mustard, all-American Sioux basketball player. He was quietly filling up and told me he is working hard to make the UND football team this fall. He still could have two years’ eligibility, even with basketball behind him.
Royal Fork Buffet has been a popular eating place in the mall for the past 16 years. It’s the place to go if you yearn for home cooking. If you remember Sunday dinners with roast beef or pork and mashed potatoes and canned vegetables, you will like this food.
You quickly can get a daily quota of fruits and vegetables at the salad tables. Help yourself to a nice glass salad plate and browse. I found honeydew melon, cantaloupe, green peas, greens, sunflower seeds, sliced black olives. Then I found a table where I could sit.
When I finished, I went back to the hot tables and got a dab of mashed potatoes, brown gravy, green beans and a small slice of ham. You can find all kinds of beverages and ice and water. Just help yourself.
Back at the table, I eavesdropped as three teachers were visiting at the next table. I could tell they were accompanying some students from out of town, who had gone elsewhere for pizza. The teachers grinned and agreed, this is so much better.
Royal Fork Buffet is done in warm tones of green and peach. There are women attendants who wear aprons from home and who come around to pour coffee and remove plates. It’s a health department requirement that customers take a clean plate each time they go through the serving lines. Manager Scott Heilman, who has been in his job 13 years, says he doesn’t even like to think of how much some people can eat.
Baked and fried chicken moves fast. So does glazed Alaskan pollock and the beef ribs on Thursday. Each day, there is a different menu to help keep the buffet interesting.
The philosophy, Heilman says, is to offer home-style foods in a comfortable and friendly, all-American, apple-pie atmosphere. The restaurant has a couple of party rooms, and promotes its catering services. It’s one of four in North Dakota and two more in South Dakota under the same ownership.
After twenty-five years in business, the Royal Fork Buffet closed in 2008.