Steak 'n Shake — BrandWiki

Steak 'n Shake

Overview

Steak 'n Shake Operations, Inc.

trade name	Steak 'n Shake
type	Subsidiary
industry	Fast food
foundation	February 1934 Normal, Illinois, U.S.
founder	Augustus Hamilton "Gus" Belt‡R1R‡
location city	Indianapolis, Indiana
location country	United States
locations	426 (2024)
area served	United States France Italy Portugal Monaco
key people	Sardar Biglari (Chairman and CEO) Phillip Cooley
products	Steakburgers, milk shakes
services	Restaurants
num employees	20,732‡R2R‡
parent	Biglari Holdings
homepage	steaknshake.com

Steak 'n Shake Operations, Inc., doing business as Steak 'n Shake, is an American fast food chain concentrated primarily in the Midwestern United States along with locations in the rest of the country plus locations in Western Europe. The company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Biglari Holdings.[3]

The menu features primarily burgers and hand-dipped milkshakes; other entrees, side items, and drinks are also available. The corporation's slogan, "Famous for Steakburgers", refers to its most prominent food item, the Steakburger. The "steak" in the restaurant name comes from the menu item. Most restaurant locations have drive-thru, in addition to indoor dining.

In 2018, there were 628 Steak 'n Shake restaurants. Of those, 414 were corporate-owned, and 214 franchised. The company has since attempted to convert to a fully franchised model.[4]

In 2021, the company had 536 locations, but the number dropped to 493 by March 31, 2023, according to Biglari Holdings; not all of those were in operation at that time.[5]

Locations

The first Steak 'n Shake in the state of Indiana was opened as a drive-in restaurant in Indianapolis in November 1954.[24] As typical for the era it had offered curb (carhop) service in addition to table service and takeout. At the time, Steak 'n Shake had locations in five states.

The Route 66 Steak 'n Shake in Springfield, Missouri (built 1962), was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.[25][26][27]

The company entered North Carolina opening a franchised location in Greensboro in December 1996.[28]

Steak 'n Shake began in Wisconsin with locations in Racine, Janesville, and Madison in the late 1990s,[29] but all locations closed by 2004.[30] Another franchiser opened locations in Waukesha and Wauwatosa in 2007, but both closed by 2010.[31][32] The chain has not returned to the state.

After briefly operating a few restaurants in South Texas during the 1970s, Steak 'n Shake returned to Texas by opening locations in the Dallas–Fort Worth area in 2001,[33] in the Houston area in 2012,[34] and in the San Antonio area beginning in 2013.[35] Steak 'n Shake entered South Carolina Carolina opening a location in Greenville in February 2001.[36]

The company entered Oklahoma for the first time by opening a franchise location in Edmond in 2004.[37]

Steak 'n Shake entered West Virginia for the first time by opening a franchise location in Barboursville in August 2007.[38]

Steak 'n Shake opened its first location in Nevada inside the South Point Casino in Las Vegas in July 2010[39] and a second location in Reno in July 2013.[40][41] In January 2017, a second Las Vegas location began, the third in Nevada, in the Student Union building on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas[42] followed by a second Reno location, the fourth in Nevada in July 2017.[43] Steak 'n Shake entered Louisiana for the first time[44] by opening a location near Baton Rouge in Covington in 2011.[45]

The first Steak 'n Shake location in the state of Arizona was opened in Tempe in October 2013.[52] [53] A second Arizona location was open on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson in July 2017.[54]

The first and only location in the state of Montana and in the upper plain states, was opened in Billings in December 2013.[55] The restaurant was forced to close after two and a half years in July 2016 due to poor sales that were blamed on "harsh reviews on social media".[56]

Steak 'n Shake expanded to California in July 2014 by opening a location in Victorville.[57][58] A Los Angeles County location was opened in Santa Monica in late October[59][60] and another in Burbank in December of the same year.[61] After a lack of activity for over a year in the highly competitive California marketplace, the company announced in April 2016 it expected to open its first Orange County location, the fourth in California, in Aliso Viejo in mid-May.[62] After a short delay, a fifth California location was opened behind schedule in Riverside in August 2016.[63]

In 2015, the company planned a restaurant in Northern California in Campbell, California, but local residents raised issues and the project was postponed.[66] Because of the delay, the first location in Northern California opened instead in Daly City in November 2016.[67][68][69] The first Central California location began operating in Fresno in March 2017.[70] A second San Francisco Bay Area restaurant was opened on the campus of San Jose State University in July 2017.[71] After a two-year delay, the company opened their Campbell location in September 2017.[72]

The first location in the Pacific Northwest opened in Seattle in May 2016;[82] it went defunct after four years.

In September 2018, the first location in Delaware was opened in Middletown.[83]

In March 2019, the first location in Nebraska was opened on the campus of University of Nebraska–Lincoln.[84]

In March 2019, Steak 'n Shake announced plans to open its first restaurant in Washington, D.C., inside the Rayburn House Office Building to serve House members, staffers, and the public who pass "through security and a metal detector".[85] The location officially opened for business in the first week of September 2019.[86] On January 11, 2021, the first Steak N Shake location in the Des Moines Suburb of West Des Moines opened, joining seven other stores in Iowa, with strict measures at that time including no eat-in dining to comply with local COVID-19 pandemic restrictions then in effect.[87]

Under Sardar Biglari

Entrepreneur Sardar Biglari took control of Steak 'n Shake in August 2008 after three years of declining same-store sales and losses of $100,000 per day. He led a turnaround which resulted in 24 straight quarters of increases in same-store sales and profits of $100,000 per day.[13] He focused the brand on burgers, fries and milkshakes, reducing the menu from eight pages to a bi-fold.[14] However the chain ran into more problems in 2016 and onward, with revenue declining sharply.[15] Reasons included under-investment in the restaurants after the deep price cuts of 2008; competition from "fast casual" restaurants like Chipotle which aimed for a more high-class experience; and two expensive lawsuits from former managers who accused the chain of misclassifying them as salaried employees and refusing to pay earned overtime.[15]

In 2018, Steak 'n Shake changed its business model to a franchise partner system, with Biglari attempting to turn all of the 400+ company-owned restaurants into franchise operations. Entrepreneurial single-unit operators could take control of an existing Steak 'n Shake for $10,000, an unusually low price, but were required to give the company 50% of the restaurant's profits.[16] Even though it offered the new franchise inducement, the firm remained heavily indebted. As of April 2020, its debt was rated as a low C/D "speculative" grade (colloquially known as junk bonds) by bond rating agencies. The Washington Post considered the chain to be extremely likely to default with a low likelihood of recovering, with the restaurant closings due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States being an unrecoverable blow to the firm.[17]

In 2021, Steak N' Shake made a strategic decision to transition away from casual dining and become a fast food restaurant. Steak 'n Shake replaced lunch counters with self-serve kiosks in 2021 to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The chain estimated that remodeling and adding kiosks to each restaurant would cost between $100,000 and $200,000. Changing the service model allowed a significant reduction of store staff. According to management, the old casual dining model faced the challenge of long food preparation time and a cost structure that required paying wait staff. Long-term strategy is to empower customers to place and pick up their own orders.

In February 2025, Steak N' Shake announced it would start making fries with 100% beef tallow by March 1. This announcement was later praised publicly by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who used it as an example of his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda, although it was criticized by health experts and scientists.[18] In March, Steak N' Shake announced that by April 2, they would switch to 100% Grade A Wisconsin butter to replace their "buttery blend", which contained seed oils.[19]

In May 2025, Steak N' Shake announced it would begin accepting Bitcoin as payment at all U.S. locations,[20] which will eventually include "all international units" at a later date.[21] On May 16, 2025, it began accepting Bitcoin payments at all U.S. locations using the Lightning network.[22][23]