MEA GULPA In our evaluation of Springfield smorgasbords last fall, we rated Buffet City a first-class establishment and gave the restaurant a four-plate rating [Bruce Rushton, “The last stuffer,” Nov. 10]. Our reporter, of course, wasn’t evaluating employment practices, just how many crab legs he could stuff into his face before he was encouraged to leave.
Good thing for the restaurant, because on Wednesday, Sept. 20, federal agents raided the place and rounded up more than a dozen undocumented immigrant employees, plus owner Xiang Hui Ye. The raid came the day before our annual “Best of Springfield” edition hit the streets. Guess which restaurant our readers picked as the city’s best buffet.
Oops.
Despite Buffet City’s sudden fall from grace, it’s business as usual for the area’s other leading Asian-style buffets. Linda Snyder, manager of the International Buffet (she was on our cover last fall), says her North Dirksen Parkway restaurant has seen “kind of a little bit” of an increase in business but that prices remain the same, at least for now. Same story at the city’s other leading Asian buffet, Buffet King, on Veterans Parkway. Neither location, we are assured by the managers, employs undocumented immigrants.
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
Illinois Times received eight awards in the annual Best of the Press contest, sponsored by the Illinois Press Association. Former staff writer Bruce Rushton, now a reporter for the State Journal-Register, won first place for business reporting and for news reporting, plus an honorable mention in the investigative-reporting category. Staff writer Dusty Rhodes won second place for government beat reporting and also for news reporting. Freelance photographer Michael Brown, a former SJ-R intern who now lives in New York City, won first place in the photo-series category. Freelance writer Luiza Ilie, now with Reuters in Bucharest, Romania, received an honorable mention in the personality-profile category. The newspaper, with a full-time editorial staff of four, was also the third-place finisher for general excellence. Illinois Times competed against large weeklies. The state press association is the nation’s largest.
THE TRUTH RETURNS
If you missed it at the cinema, here’s another chance to see Al Gore’s documentary about global warming. Local environmental and peace groups are sponsoring special screenings and discussions of An Inconvenient Truth next week. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, see the former veep’s flick at the Springfield Baha’i Center, 1131 S. Eighth St. At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, go to St. Joseph Church, 1345 N. Sixth St. And at 11:30 a.m., Friday, Oct. 6, go to Lincoln Library, Carnegie North, Seventh Street and Capitol Avenue.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2006.
