Sizzler
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-based restaurant chain with headquarters in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
. The chain serves steak
Steak
A steak is a cut of meat . Most are cut perpendicular to the muscle fibers, improving the perceived tenderness of the meat. In North America, steaks are typically served grilled, pan-fried, or broiled. The more tender cuts from the loin and rib are cooked quickly, using dry heat, and served whole...
, seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
, and salad
Salad
Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...
(from a large salad bar
Salad bar
A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates...
), as well as similar items.
History
The chain was founded in 1958 as Del's Sizzler Family Steak House by Del and Helen Johnson in Culver City, California. The chain is composed of more than 270 locations throughout the U.S.. Most of Sizzler's U.S. locations are in the WestWestern United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Sizzler promoted mainly steak and combination steak dinners with the optional salad bar
Salad bar
A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates...
. The restaurant wanted to give the customer the feel of a full-service restaurant, but at a price just slightly more than that of a fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
chain. To keep costs down, many of the restaurants had their own in-house meat cutters where they would cut their own steaks and grind their own hamburgers. Heading into the mid 1980s, competition began to appear from other casual-dining restaurants. After promotions such as "All-you-can-eat" fried shrimp, the chain decided to expand its popular salad bar into a full buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
promoted as the "Buffet Court". Patrons began to use the buffet as their meal instead of an add-on to an entree. In response, Sizzler began to lower the quality of food in other areas of the menu. Customers took notice and Sizzler's reputation suffered. It was a classic example of an arms race between Sizzler and their customers, with strategies and countermeasures to gain the advantage, but in the end both sides were losers. Sizzler filed for chapter 11
Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
in 1996 ("primarily to void leases"), closed 140 of 215 stores and changed their logo. They reemerged from chapter 11 in 1997. During the late 1990s, new management upgraded the quality of food but also increased prices. Sizzler's revenue flat-lined, and 21 locations were closed in 2001. Sizzler began an image makeover around 2002. A new restaurant concept was created featuring a lighter and more open dining room. The changes were accompanied with a new menu. In an effort to return to their roots, steaks, seafood, and the salad bar are now being reemphasized while the all-you-can-eat buffet is being phased out.
Sizzler was sold to Pacific Equity Partners
Pacific Equity Partners
Pacific Equity Partners is a private equity investment firm focusing on leveraged buyout and growth capital transactions primarily in Australia and New Zealand...
, a Australian-based investment firm, who bought the company in 2005. In January 2008, Sizzler announced it was planning to take action against the Multi-State Lottery Association
Multi-State Lottery Association
The Multi-State Lottery Association is a non-profit, government-benefit association owned and operated by agreement of its 33 member lotteries MUSL was created to facilitate the operation of multi-jurisdictional lottery games, including Powerball, Mega Millions), video lottery, and instant ...
(MUSL) of Urbandale, Iowa
Urbandale, Iowa
Urbandale is a city in Polk and Dallas counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 29,072; a special census taken by the city in 2005 counted 35,904 residents and the United States Census Bureau estimated that 38,369 residents lived there in 2008...
, over the use of the name The Sizzler (Hot Lotto).
In June 2011, it was announced that Sizzler USA, a USA management group led by the Sizzler CEO, would buy the restaurant chain from Pacific Equity Partners. The headquarters will remain in Culver City, California where the chain was founded.
International locations
Sizzler also has restaurants throughout the world including AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
.
Food safety
In 2006, all 28 Sizzler restaurants across Australia suspended salad bar service after rat poisonRat poison
Rodenticides are a category of pest control chemicals intended to kill rodents.Single feed baits are chemicals sufficiently dangerous that the first dose is sufficient to kill....
was found in two restaurants. Sizzler Australia referred to the incidents as "sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
". The culprit turned out to be a mentally unstable
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
woman from Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
.
In 2000, over 60 people became ill and a young girl died in an outbreak
Outbreak
Outbreak is a term used in epidemiology to describe an occurrence of disease greater than would otherwise be expected at a particular time and place. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire continent. Two linked cases of a rare infectious...
of E. coli O157:H7 that originated at a Sizzler restaurant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. Health officials said that the likely source of contamination was meat supplied by the Excel Corporation meat packer. They believe that cross contamination to other food items occurred when Sizzler employees handled the meat near areas where salad bar items were prepared. This was similar to an outbreak in Washington state and Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
in 1993. In the 1993 case, as in 2000, the tainted meat apparently came from Excel, and contaminated salad bar items.