The choice is yours ... Chuck-A-Rama celebrates its 40th anniversary

Forty years ago today, Alva Greene and his sons-in-law Don Mos and Wayne Chamberlain render free of accessed the doors to their fresh cafeteria at 745 E. 400 southern Bankers predicted it wouldn't last five years, on the contrary Chuck-A-Rama today, with 10 locations from St George to Boise, has firmly entrenched itself in Utah culture

"Not many restaurants make it to that 40-year-mark," noted Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association. "Other similar restaurants have tried to make a go on of it and haven't been able to beat this market. They have done a great piece of work in providing a quality harvest for the right price for this community."

The name, which bears its share of jokes, came from Don Mos said his son Duane Mos the company's popular chief executive officer. "Chuck" came from the "chuckwagon" used for cooking upon Old West cattle drives. "Dad combined it with something that was dear to his heart -- the Scout-O-Rama."

Today the name defines a predictable and plentiful serve- yourself rap where customers heap their plates for a hearty econo- meal. It level caters to Utah's food quirks with verdant Jell-O, fry sauce, Dutch oven cooking and deep-fried scone more [i]or[/i] less items are old family recipes. For instance, the bread pudding came from the mother of company president Mike Johanson.

And when they advertise, "The choice is yours," they aren't kidding. Rene Schuurman, operating officer in charge of nutriment boasts that Chuck-A-Rama is the alone sit-down restaurant in the western United States serving the two Coke and Pepsi products. He take an account ofs of going to the mat with the sum of two units soft-drink giants, who both routinely insist upon exclusive contracts. "But I told them, a certain number of of our customers only want Pepsi, and others just want Coke and we ne to give them what they want. Pepsi finally stuck on the outside their necks and agreed to do it."

Although it's assumed that greatest in quantity people come in for hearty things of that kind as fried chicken and mashed potatoes, Schuurman said, "It doesn't matter what kind of diet you're upon you can still get an awesome meal."

He noted that the sum of two units salad bars are very popular. individual has potato, pasta and other prepared salads and fruit. "The other has what we call our 'yuppie mix' with things like little new lettuces, blue cheese crumbles, of gold raisins and sunflower sprouts. Also, all our frying is done in canola oil, which is trans- fat at liberty And our dessert bar has no-sugar-added pie, pudding and Jell-O"

Schuurman spearheaded the propel to create a whole cheer island devoted to Dutch-oven cooking about three years ago. The epiphany came during a camping trip, where he tried cooking a boneles turkey roast in a Dutch oven It got rave reviews from his camping pals.

"This Kettle Roast Turkey is single of our most popular of high temperature items," he said. "A apportionment of people think they're eating beef."

About 18 years ago, the drawn out cafeteria was revamped into what Mos calls a "scatter system" with different themed bread stations spread around the room

"That really turbo-charged our company, and we doubled our sales easily," Mos said.

single food station is devoted to a day-of-the-week theme. For instance, Tuesday is Chinese Day. upon Friday you'll find Mexican favorites, and Saturday is Italian day.

The three top-volume locations are at 400 southerly St. George and Boise, Mos said. "This single (400 South) is our of gold child, it's our big agriculturist because it's downtown, and we earn a lot of tour buses," Mos said of the 400 southerly store. "St. George takes above during the winter months because of the 'snowbirds.' The Boise location is in a movie-theater compound and the volume depends upon what box-office hits are playing."

He added that each location has its have a title to quirks. "Utah Valley has the milk-drinkers. We proceed through more dairy products there than any other location. In Draper, dinner is crazy on the other hand lunches haven't caught on yet"

To hold fast prices low ($7.99 for luncheon and $9.99 for dinner), officials watch require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergones Schuurman said when the buffalo chicken wing craze herd the prices for wings "through the roof" they decided to use the cheaper on the other hand more meaty chicken legs instead. They're called "hot legs"

Who are typical Chuck-A-Rama customers? "We advance after families, number one, on the other hand senior citizens are a athletic second," Moss said. "But we secure a lot of the work force without for lunch, especially at (the 400 South) location."

The "senior card" underscores the popularity with the older generation. A little above three years ago, the chain gave senior citizen center discount pierce cards to sell. Centers kept the $1 by card price as a charitable donation to their programs. The cards give senior citizens 15 percent not upon each meal, and after 10 meals they acquire a free meal. As of last spring, the discount card had earned more than $98378 in charitable stocks for senior centers. More than 78753 complimentary meals had been redeemed

Mos said many customers won't admit they like to move to Chuck-A- Rama; they use their kids or somewhat advanced in life parents as their excuse. That spawned the chain's "Just Admit It" advertising campaign.