12 Steakhouses That Time Forgot

Starting in the mid-20th century, and continuing to this day for a lot of people, the very peak of luxurious dining and a classy night out begins and ends with a steak dinner. A prime cut of a nice sirloin, with a baked potato, roll on the side, and a salad — prepared table-side, in the kitchen, or obtained and assembled by the customer themselves at the salad bar — is the definitive dinner out, reserved for special occasions like promotions, birthdays, and anniversaries. If one of these all-American steakhouses was really fancy and customer-minded, they'd also likely have a few fish options, a classic dessert or two, and a decent wine list.

Steakhouses, high-end and chef-branded ones, remain an American culinary institution, but they're few and far between now. In the 1970s and 1980s, every medium-sized city had at least a couple of outlets for a reliable national steakhouse chain. For better or for worse, that era is long gone. Once mighty and meaty steakhouse chains and famous independent establishments alike are disappearing. Here are some forgotten steakhouses that closed up shop entirely a long time ago, or seem to be headed in that direction.

Berndt Gros and Eddie Grayson opened the first York Steak House in 1966. Eatery number one debuted in a restaurant pod in Columbus, Ohio called The Patio, and the idea of opening new locations directly adjacent to competitors became a business model for York Steak House, which expanded rapidly in the 1960s with places in the then-emerging retail trend of shopping malls. General Mills Restaurant Group bought the York Steak House chain in 1976 and set out to make a national concern out of it, topping out at almost 180 units, nearly all of them in malls. Customers could choose from a number of cuts of beef (or chicken or fish), which came standard with a potato option, a roll, and a trip to the salad bar.

But then malls evolved, with many installing food courts that offered numerous fast food options at cheaper prices than even a budget steakhouse like York. In the 1980s, York closed down restaurants as quickly as it had once opened them. As of 2023, only one outlet remains — in the chain's original hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

Diners looking for a night out at a steakhouse had a lot of options from which to choose in the mid-20th century U.S., but Victoria Station offered a unique hook — its dining rooms were built out of old boxcars and sported a nostalgic, trains-and-railroad theme. A group of graduates of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Cornell University opened the first Victoria Station steakhouse in San Francisco in 1969. By the late 1970s, nearly 100 Victoria Stations were up and running (or standing still and serving steak and all the trimmings) around North America.

After topping out at that robust level, business chain-wide started to decline. Expanding too far too quickly led to a financial crush. By 1981, the business was operating with a $6.3 million yearly loss. A change of top management didn't help much, and Victoria Station filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 1986, closing the vast majority of its remaining restaurants. A solitary restaurant stayed open in Salem, Massachusetts, finally closing down in 2017. It was a blow for the community, especially Salem's Children's Charity, which had been using the restaurant to host its annual Christmas party for over two decades. "For Salem Children's Charity's sake, it's a disaster," board member Brendan Walsh told The Salem News. "We're scrambling now, and we may yet come up with something."

Valle's would one day become a multi-outlet chain of gigantic steakhouses in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut that served big steaks at inexpensive prices to a large and continuous volume of customers. The first Valle's Steak House was a 12-seat restaurant in Portland, Maine, opened by owner-operator Donald Valle in 1933. Business was so good that by the end of the 1930s, Valle could open a second, bigger restaurant and also convert a nightclub into another sizable eatery. The average Valle's Steak House took up a lot of square footage, and the company served hundreds of thousands of customers. In 1951, a Portland location sold more steaks than any other restaurant in the U.S. After Valle's expanded with three locations in the Boston area in the mid-1960s, the chain served more than 200,000 people a week and employed 1,300 people.

A few dozen Valle's operated across Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York by the mid-1970s. But that's when revenues and profits began to slow down. After the death of Donald Valle in 1977, his relatives couldn't afford to pay hefty estate taxes. As the '80s wore on, the Valle family gradually shut down every steakhouse but one in Portland, which stayed open until 2000. It outlasted the last independently operated Valle's, which shut down in 1991.

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.

The new direction didn't bring much relief, and the further financial damage of unpaid franchise leases along with increasing debt led parent company Jamco to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1987. The chain had shrunk to just 60 units by the time Omnivest International paid $140,000 to acquire what was left of Mr. Steak. Most of those restaurants were converted into Finley's steakhouses.

What if some enterprising restaurant company took the animatronics from a Chuck E. Cheese or Showbiz Pizza and applied them to a restaurant with far more adult fare, like steaks and salads? In the 1990s, somebody did, and they called it Bugaboo Creek Steak House. Evoking the look and feeling of a mountain cabin or lodge, the faux-log walls were equipped with animatronic taxidermy-style animal heads, which would occasionally come to life and talk at customers, reeling off facts about the natural wonders of Canada. Characters included Bill the Buffalo, Moxie the Moose, and Timber the Christmas tree.

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. 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.

Actor Eva Longoria got her big break as a member of the cast of the hit ABC show "Desperate Housewives," and she parlayed her fame and fortune into business concerns, including a production company, a high-end tequila, and a couple of classy, expensive steakhouses in the city where tourists go to spend a lot of money: Las Vegas. In 2009, Longoria announced plans to open a Vegas branch of Beso, her Hollywood restaurant. The steakhouse was situated inside of a mall-casino complex on the Las Vegas Strip, but, despite the location and celebrity ownership, it suffered financial issues within a year of opening. In early 2011, Beso LLC filed for bankruptcy. Landry's Restaurants, owner of hotels, casinos, and chain restaurants such as the Rainforest Café, purchased the business.

Landry's set about revamping Beso, teaming up with Longoria and steakhouse chain Morton's to open a new restaurant in late 2012: SHe by Morton's. SHe was supposed to be a steakhouse just for women. What does that mean? The portions of meat were smaller, befitting a woman's supposedly light appetite, and the dessert menus came attached to mirrors, so that female customers could apply after-dinner lipstick touch-ups. In April 2014, the Southern Nevada Health District closed down SHe over food safety violations. Weeks later, Landry's shuttered SHe altogether.