Victoria Station – The Railroad-Themed Dining Adventure
Picture this: you’re pulling into what looks like a genuine train station, complete with vintage boxcars and cabooses converted into dining rooms. Victoria Station was a chain of railroad-themed steakhouse restaurants. At the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, the chain had 100 locations in the United States. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1986. The last remaining restaurant in the former chain was located in Salem, Massachusetts until it abruptly closed in December 2017.
The idea for Victoria Station came from a project at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. The original owners, Bob Freeman, Peter Lee, and Dick Bradley, all studied there. The first restaurant opened in San Francisco in December 1969. It was built using five old boxcars and two cabooses around a main lobby. This first location made a lot of money, about $90,000 each month in its first year! Prime rib was the featured item on a limited menu that included steaks, barbecued beef ribs, and shrimp done in a variation of scampi style known as “Shrimp Victoria”.
Hilltop Steakhouse – America’s Highest-Grossing Restaurant
If you drove Route 1 in Massachusetts, you couldn’t miss the massive 70-foot neon cactus towering over Hilltop Steakhouse. The New York Times described the Hilltop as “America’s largest restaurant, both in number of customers served and sales volume” in 1987. At that time, the Hilltop served nearly 2.4 million customers annually, three times the volume of the nation’s second-largest restaurant, Tavern on the Green in Manhattan. In 1988, it produced an estimated $31.5 million in sales and was again cited by Restaurants & Institutions as the largest-grossing restaurant in the United States.
In 1961, Giuffrida, a 43 year old butcher from Lawrence, Massachusetts, purchased a small bar on busy Route 1 in Saugus for $7,000 and converted it into a 125-seat steakhouse. The restaurant soon drew large crowds, which required an expansion to 400 seats. In 2013, the Hilltop Steak House closed. The property was sold and items, including the plastic cows, were auctioned off. The fan favorite sadly closed their doors in 2013 after 52 years of business and on their last day, hundreds of customers waited in line to get their last steak and to say a sorrowful farewell to the Old West atmosphere.
Steak and Ale – The Suburban Pioneer
Opening in Dallas in the 1960s at a time when steak dinners were widely seen as a rare and expensive indulgence, Steak and Ale brought the steakhouse to the suburbs at affordable prices. The chain’s old English-style dining rooms were also a launch point for now common restaurant ideas, like a lunch menu that costs less than the dinner menu, free refills on soda, and an all-you-can-eat salad bar, in addition to steaks, pasta, wine, and beer.
In 1976, Pillsbury purchased all 113 Steak and Ale locations and ended up taking it to new heights—by the late ’80s, the chain was at its peak with 280 restaurants across the country. But competition began nipping at its heels and the company was soon on a downward spiral. In 2008, all of the chain’s remaining 58 locations shuttered permanently as part of its parent company’s bankruptcy proceedings. The promise of affordable fine dining had run its course, but not without leaving a lasting impact on how Americans thought about casual dining.
Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse – The Northeast Favorite
In 1966, the first Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse opened in New Jersey. In three decades’ time, New Jersey would be home to 22 Charlie Brown’s locations, notably serving steak and prime rib and offering a well-stocked salad bar. This wasn’t just another steakhouse chain – it became a genuine part of Northeast culture, especially for families celebrating special occasions.
Charlie Brown’s Steakhouses used to be ubiquitous in the Northeast but the COVID-19 pandemic hit the chain hard. That wasn’t the chain’s only hit. Before the pandemic, in 2010, the parent company filed for bankruptcy and closed 29 locations. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? The corporate sight shows two locations in Woodbury and Scotch Plains, New Jersey, so perhaps one has a chance of beating the devastating odds of the rest. The brand that once defined suburban dining experiences had been reduced to just a couple of holdouts.
Mr. Steak – The Birthday Party Destination
One of the first casual sit-down restaurants and steakhouses for the American masses, Mr. Steak opened its first restaurant in Colorado Springs in 1962. It sold USDA “Choice” level steak at prices noticeably lower than that of fine-dining restaurants, which lured so many customers that the chain explosively expanded over the next decade and a half. By 1978, customers packed nearly 280 Mr. Steak restaurants across the United States, with the steakhouse becoming a favorite for birthday parties — you could dine for just $9 on your birthday.
In the late 1970s, the public’s attitude toward red meat began to shift. So many people stopped eating beef or cut back on their consumption out of concerns over its possible negative health effects that business at restaurants like Mr. Steak suffered. Seeking to make up for the lost revenue, the restaurant chain greatly expanded its menu, adding so many chicken and fish entrees and health-forward salads that brand identity suffered. In 2009, the final location of Mr. Steak closed its doors in St. Charles, Mo. Some of its Michigan locations were rebranded as Finley’s, and you can still enjoy a steak there today.
Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon – The Rapid Rise and Fall
Once a potential rival to juggernauts like Texas Roadhouse or Outback Steakhouse, today Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon is but a memory, according to Restaurant Business. A public company with just eight locations in 1992, within a few years it had grown to be a chain with more than 250 units. The concept was simple but effective: big steaks, bigger portions, and an idealized version of Texas hospitality that resonated with diners across the country.
By the mid-2000s, though, the chain was contracting as quickly as it grew, and by 2017 it was bankrupt and with fewer than 20 locations remaining. And soon after that, it was gone. The chain performed reasonably well in the early 21st century but suffered huge financial blows during the economic crisis of 2009. At that point, Lone Star’s parent company had to close 27 of its 179 restaurants. What started as a promising competitor to the big players ended up being another casualty of rapid expansion and economic downturns.
York Steakhouse – The Mall Dining Experience
Once a nearly national chain that offered low-cost steaks and other foods in more than two dozen states, the York Steakhouse chain closed down in the late 1980s, according to New Bedford Guide. It was an unusual business model from the start: York Steakhouse was owned by the cereal manufacturing company General Mills, while the restaurants themselves were operated in a cafeteria style instead of with traditional sit-down service.
Owned by cereal giant General Mills, this cafeteria-style chain of restaurants was quite a name on the steakhouse scene in the ’70s and ’80s. In its heyday in 1982, York operated close to 200 locations in 27 states, spanning from Texas to Maine. Most of the locations were housed inside malls and served hot and cold items like the popular steak, potatoes, and salad combo. But once General Mills bowed out of the relationship, things quickly went downhill for the strip mall staple. The chain began shedding locations and while some remained in operation as independent restaurants for several years, the brand was largely defunct by the early aughts. One final York Steak House location is still in operation today in Columbus, Ohio.
Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse – The Animatronic Adventure
The first Bugaboo Creek restaurant opened its doors in Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1993. Ownership changed hands until it wound up in the possession of CB Holding Corporation, which filed bankruptcy papers in 2010 and closed down 10 restaurants. What made this place special wasn’t just the food – it was the talking animatronic animals scattered throughout the dining rooms that entertained families while they waited for their meals.
Capitol BC Restaurants saved the chain and re-opened 13 outlets. However, by 2016, only two Bugaboo Creek Steak Houses were left open, both in Maine. They both closed in June of that year, shuttering within a week of each other and leaving dozens of employees out of work. The novelty that once drew families with children eventually wore thin, and even the most entertaining animatronic moose couldn’t save the concept from changing dining preferences and economic pressures.
