There are two pizza buffet restaurants in Garden City in close proximity to one another.  One of them, I haven’t visited yet. I think I should, though, because I’m not likely to be visiting the other one again. American Pie on Middlebelt used to be good, but it has gone downhill in recent months.

The pizza at a buffet restaurant will never be the top of the line, but it has the potential to be decent. And American Pie’s pizza is still decent enough. But the atmosphere has really deteriorated over the last few months.  On my most recent visit, there were no bowls for the pasta. Until now, there were always bowls provided for the pasta to be served with a marinara or a meat sauce. But not anymore. Sure, you can use a plate, but it’s not the same.

What really gets me is this: the music they play in the restaurant consists of the same songs repeated in the same order on a 30-minute cycle. I guarantee that when you go there, you will hear these songs and only these songs:

– the second half of “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn
– “Say You Love Me” by Fleetwood Mac
– “Rockin’ Me” by Steve Miller
– “Sara Smile” by Hall and Oates
– “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone
– “Reelin’ in the Years” by Steely Dan
– “Boogie Nights” by Heatwave
– “Dreamer” by Supertramp
– plus others that I have mercifully forgotten, although I know I would remember them if I ever went back.

Now these are not bad songs, not at all. They were hits from when I grew up. But to hear these songs over and over — it’s worse than terrestrial radio!  How can anyone stand to work there, knowing that this is all they’ll be hearing, day in and day out, half-hour in and half-hour out? It would drive me batty. They used to play a more varied mix of songs. I wonder what happened? Whatever it was, it was enough to drive away a customer.