Steakhouse chain Sizzler USA Restaurants Inc. has grown to almost 300 locations worldwide with its concept of serving USDA steaks at an affordable price.

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It’s a name we all know. It’s a name that has been referenced in countless movies and television shows throughout years. It’s a name that is permanently nestled in the hearts and minds of Americans alike as one of the most original steakhouse chains in the industry. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s Sizzler, and after 50 years in the business, the company is still on fire.

Del and Helen Johnson opened their first Sizzler Family Steak House in Culver City, Calif., with just $50 in the cash register and a comprehensive menu boasting the area’s best USDA steaks at an affordable price – only $1.19 back then.

The year was 1958. Dwight D. Eisenhower was in his second term as President of the United States. Fourteen-year-old Bobby Fisher was awarded the U.S. Chess Championship. And “Gigi” had won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The Johnsons – considered by some as the grandparents of the fast-casual dining concept – wanted to create a steakhouse where many families could afford to eat and where they could control the pace at which they enjoyed their meals.       

“There weren’t really any steakhouses like it at the time,” President and CEO Kerry Kramp notes. “Sizzler had created its own niche where people could get a high-value product – a steak, a baked potato and a side salad – for their own dining experience.

From there, the company continued to build great restaurants, serving great food to great people.”

Today, Sizzler – now known as Sizzler USA Restaurants Inc. – has grown to almost 300 locations worldwide, including 209 venues in 16 states and Puerto Rico, and 80 locations in Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and China. Under the guidance of its Australian investment firm parent, Pacific Equity Partners, it plans to expand into Mexico in the future.

Good Times and Bad Times
Sizzler is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with updated restaurant designs featuring new interior and exterior colors, finishes and graphics, and a new attitude about its food and hospitality.   

Kramp says the company continues to live up to its reputation by offering quality steaks at an affordable price. These days, checks average $11.82 per guest.

All in all, things are going very well for the iconic steakhouse, Kramp says. However, staying fresh after five decades in the industry is not an easy task for any restaurant. Sizzler will be the first to admit it’s had its fair shares of ups and downs, some of which have not been pretty.

But, the way the company overcame these challenges could serve as inspiration to any restaurant trying to withstand the industry’s present-day economic pains.

To explain its own triumph in the ever-fickle restaurant industry, one must travel back to Sizzler’s more difficult times – the 1990s.

Back then, the buffet concept hit the market with a vengeance, much to the company’s dismay. Buffet-style restaurants began competing with the chain for the same guests.

In an effort to retain them, the company opted to expand its famous salad bar into a full buffet, promoted at that time as the Buffet Court.

However, customers began using the Buffet Court as their full meal instead of an offered add-on as its salad bar had been. These antics inevitably caused the company’s food quality to lower a bit, and, unfortunately, Sizzler’s customers took notice.

“Sizzler didn’t have the size capacity and food wells to be able to directly compete,” Kramp explains.
“The 1990s placed a lot of leverage against the company and they went through some necessary downsizing.”

Beating the Odds
In 1996, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed more than 100 of its stores. It reemerged in 1997 with the idea to go back to its fast-casual roots, where patrons would place their orders at the counter, take a seat and then a server would present them with their meals.

The company “had mixed luck along the way with respect to how the consumers responded,” Kramp says. Sizzler began upgrading the quality of its food, but had to raise its prices as a result. That didn’t go over too well with customers looking for a value, and the company closed a few more stores.

“The strategy of spreading out across the country was refined to focus more on the California marketplace,” Kramp explains.

Limiting its presence to the West Coast was a smart move, he notes. By focusing on one market segment, Sizzler was able to reexamine its strategies, figure out what worked and what didn’t and gather up enough capital to undergo a makeover.

New management was brought on board, including Kramp, who was named president and CEO of Sizzler in June 2008.
 
Experienced Executive
Kramp had most recently franchised Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurants in Minnesota, and has served as CEO and President for brands such as Buffets Inc., owner of Old Country Buffet and HomeTown Buffet, and Let’s Dish! Inc., a home meal-preparation concept. In addition, he co-founded Chicken by George Inc. with former Miss America Phyllis George, a brand that was later purchased by Geo. A. Hormel Co.

“It was just a natural transition for me to combine all of my experience with full-service, family casual dining restaurants with my background in the buffet business,” he says, “and to team up with some people I had worked with in the past.   

“Now, we’re concentrating on taking a 50-year-old company and finding the right direction to take it for the next 50 years,” Kramp adds.

A Win-Win Concept
“As you take a look at the way the marketplace is right now, and knowing all of the pressures on the restaurant side and the consumer side, we were thinking of different ways to revitalize and re-energize the Sizzler brand,” Kramp says. “We have a couple of secret weapons that gave us a platform to work off of.    
   

“One is our salad bar, which has 51 items mostly made from scratch, and a hot appetizer bar that has chicken wings, a taco bar, a pasta bar and a dessert bar. Being able to eat a little or a lot off the bars provides an opportunity for the customer to gauge how hungry they are.

“If you go to a one-price buffet, you almost avoid going because if you’re not really hungry, you feel like you won’t get your money’s worth,” he continues. “Sizzler has found a way around that.

“You can customize what you order from the entrees to the salad bar with you particular appetite or the appetites of the people in your party.”

Kramp points out that both restaurants and consumers are feeling the same pinch. Consumers are paying more for gas and living expenses, and restaurants have to pay more for labor and supplies.    

“In the past, you could do price increases and the guests could absorb those,” he notes. “But, when you have both groups feeling the same pressure, there is not an outlet to find a safe ground.”

As a result, Sizzler decided to merge the best interests of both groups. “We wanted to partner with our vendors and partner with our guests, so we created a value menu.

“We didn’t just discount one item to see the impact it would have on our guests; we looked at our entire menu from what we’re charging for beverages to what’s included with the main entrée item.

“We believe if we can offer customers a logical value, we think people will come to us more often, which will increase the number of guests we have. We expect this to be a long-term strategy,” he states.

Finding Clues
The second secret weapon involves the environment in which the food is served, Kramp continues. “With the way we’re set up, we provide a much more convenient dining experience for our guests,” he says. “By the time they get done paying in the beginning, they are in charge of the speed of their dining experience.    

“Some people want you around; other people are in the middle of having a discussion and don’t want any help, but would appreciate their beverage being refilled or their empty plates being removed. So, our ability to provide a full-service dining experience in a fast-casual environment has been a key differentiator from our competitors.”

Sizzler servers are trained to study what Kramp calls “cues” or subconscious actions that all restaurant goers exhibit. “When we deliver a steak, we’ll ask the customer to cut into it and to make sure it’s done to their complete satisfaction,” he says.

“At that point, we’ll get cues if they want to engage and talk about it. We spend a lot of time talking to our servers about how to read the table and how to make sure we’re ‘touching the table’ or making a mental note as we walk past where the customers are at the process of their meal, whether they are in a conversation and if there is a reason to interrupt them,” he continues.

“Plus, everybody in the dining room is waiting on every table. One person is assigned a station, but anybody walking by is trained to be able to take care of the customers’ needs, whether it’s refilling a beverage or bringing a sauce to go with their steak.

“We have been incredibly fortunate to have the longest-term employees in our industry. When I walk into a restaurant and a dishwasher, cook or server tells me they’ve been with the company for 17 years and will be here for as long as they can keep walking, it’s an indescribable feeling. You can’t train people to be friendly – that’s impossible. We train friendly people to serve. If you empower people to do their best every day and recognize and reward that performance, they will never want to leave.”

Looking ahead, Kramp says he expects Sizzler to continue evolving by way of its menu, value and hospitality.

“We need to make sure we provide the perfect dining experience for the guest. A lot more states need to have Sizzler in their hometowns, so we expect to get ourselves ready for a growth-oriented strategy over the next 24 months. Our company motto is ‘You either serve the guests or serve those that serve the guests.’

“We support our stores, the managers support their employees, and the employees feel well watched over and challenged, so that they can take all of their energy and passion to wow the guest when they walk in the door. We strive to do everything we can to get them to come back and honor us with their visit again.”