Many of you may love a freshly brewed cup of coffee in the morning. I do too. If you love coffee, nothing beats one that is freshly ground in front of you, that first sip is pure delight. However, I often run into a problem when I want to have some amount of decaf in my cup of coffee. There are not a lot of customers drinking decaf and it could have been sitting there all day for all I know. I even have had some coffee houses and pastry shops complain when I ask for decaf after 10am due to the fact that they stop brewing it as it is not a big seller. Granted, one time I was told I could wait ten minutes for them to make a pot for me or to make a cup using a pour over method.

My situation changed one day when I was on vacation and bought gas at a Sheetz. Thankfully I needed to go inside and saw the best sight right near the register. It was this machine in the photo of this article. I had to stop and look for a minute to see if they had decaf because it was later in the day and I did not want to be up all night long. And sure enough, there it is! DECAF is one of the choices. I had to try it, and I was not disappointed.

So whether you like fresh brewed regular, French roast, or another blend, Sheetz has what you need. Their machines hold a fair amount of beans in the cup ready for the next customer to make their selection. You watch your beans flow down into the grinder and then watch as your coffee flows into your cup. If you bring your own cup to refill, it is only a single dollar for a Sheetz rewards member or an additional five cents if you are not. Or you can pay the full price to use a Sheetz cup which ranges from $1.39 to $2.29 (in my area at the time of this writing). Those prices are not bad for freshly ground and brewed coffee.

One thing to note, watch your coffee as it is filling the cup so you can press the stop button if you need a little room for cream or milk.

Next time you are on the run and needing your morning coffee or have to have a late night cup to keep you moving, consider going into the nearest Sheetz to get one that is freshly ground.

Matthew Todd

Happily married, father of four, and lover of the adventures in life. I love Jesus, vacationing with my family, camping, fishing, bike riding, swimming, walking, and sleeping. Sometimes I am even able to watch movies that I want to watch.

You can reach me on Facebook  or Instagram

I finally ate at a buffet for the first time since the start of the lockdowns in March. Jonah and I spent the earlier part of the day working on an Eagle Scout project. When we left the project, we decided we needed to eat something before we drove the hour back home. He and I are the most adventurous and enjoy pushing the envelope, so to speak. We started by looking for the closest Golden Corral, which is our favorite buffet place, but found out that would take us too far out of the way. The closest buffet was in Fredericksburg, the Great American Buffet, and is a chain that we have visited in the past so we felt safe committing to that location.

While driving, we talked to each other about the rules we wanted to use to keep ourselves safe, such as cleaning off the table, using sanitizer often at the table, not touching the community utensils, and wearing our masks unless we were eating.

The outside of the restaurant looks fine, the parking lot was clean, as was the door and signage outside. Inside, we were greeted by several friendly employees. I explained it was our first time back into a buffet. They were very reassuring and explained the safety procedures and the process to get food. The seating is adjusted with several tables marked for no use to maintain safe distance between diners. You need to wear gloves and a face mask while getting food from the buffet. There was a wide variety of food choices and I enjoyed having all of the choices available to me, it has been a while since I’ve been able to enjoy so many different flavors. The seasoning was balanced, spicy things were medium to hot and the overall experience was the same except for the gloves and mask.

The servers here are really friendly and respond well to their customers. The customers who are chatty, like myself, had good conversations and the customers who wanted more privacy, were respected as well. I like that, there was no pressure to engage in banter if you did not want to. The manager was active in the dining area greeting guests and working the buffet as well. I asked him about gluten free options and he was very informative. He walked me through each item on the buffet and explained which ones could potentially be cross-contaminated and which ones were safe for me to enjoy. That is always helpful for people, like me, who have dietary restrictions. The wait staff also kept the buffet stocked and clean, wiping it down frequently and removing food that spilled off a customer’s plate rather than putting it back on the buffet. On a side note, I cannot stand when I see food that has fallen off of a plate on to the bar get placed back into the serving tray by wait staff. I am thankful I saw the opposite here.

I do recommend this place if you are a buffet person or in the mood for some good food, many choices, and friendly staff. Thank you Great American Buffet.

Matthew Todd

Happily married, father of four, and lover of the adventures in life. I love Jesus, vacationing with my family, camping, fishing, bike riding, swimming, walking, and sleeping. Sometimes I am even able to watch movies that I want to watch.

You can reach me on Facebook  or Instagram