Have you ever been on your way to some all-you-can-eat buffet style restaurant, and realized you wouldn't have time to actually eat a full meal there?
For an increased price (for some reason $20 is the first figure to come to mind), some restaurants could start offering the same "hand-stamp for re-entry" concept used by theme-parks and some clubs.
A person who for some odd reason _really_ loves the food at said establishment could eat there for their every meal, if they so chose.
And people running late for a meeting or other engagement could keep on time, knowing they were free to return later and finish their meal at leisure, thus avoiding the digestive problems that can accompany rushed eating.
-- cloaked!stoat, May 14 2001

//Baked, if not necessarily for free-standing restaurants. Many institutional or free company cafeterias work this way//

Isn't that sort of like saying Tails for All is baked because some animals have tails?
-- PotatoStew, May 14 2001


Ahem! Have we forgotten "To Go" and "Drive-thru" already?
-- bobzaguy, May 14 2001


Granted, drive-through and take-out food are fast, even efficient ways of getting dinner. In terms of time between arriving and time when you can begin eating, however, buffet-style restaurants can often be the fastest if one wants something approaching a sit-down, non-fast-food meal. Unfortunately time constraints don't always agree with the idea of finishing that meal without making one's self ill.

Perhaps this idea doesn't sound as good here as it did the other night when my friends were running late. Sorry.
-- cloaked!stoat, May 14 2001


It works for me. I buy dinner or lunch, and anytime within the next 24 hours I can come in and resupply my gastrointestinal tract with goodies. Mmmmm...cheap food!
-- Dog Ed, May 15 2001


I'm sure this would work for some of the megamalls we have here in the USA. People drive for hours to get to these places (some even have bus tour transportation). Another way to bake this would be to allow the customer to visit any location of that restaurant within the alloted time, which would be nice if one is traveling.
-- phoenix, Aug 11 2001



random, halfbakery