Whatever Happened To The Beefsteak Charlie's Restaurant Chain?
Chain restaurants have been around for decades, with A&W Restaurants opening in 1919 being the first of their kind in the United States. Since then, many have greatly impacted the industry, like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Chik-fil-A, while others have tried and unfortunately failed to stick around. When it comes to Beefsteak Charlie's, that was the case.
At its peak, Beefsteak Charlie's amassed almost 70 locations in the early 1980s but first claimed fame as a popular Manhattan hotspot in 1910 when a man named Charles W. Chessar founded it. For years, it was known for featuring steak sandwiches in a sports bar setting with niche horse racing décor in tow. It wasn't until 1976 that Beefsteak Charlie's became a franchise. This was years after the ownership was transferred to Polish New Yorker William Soshnick. It merged with Bombay Palace Restaurants in 1987, but even that move didn't help. The locations began to dwindle over the years, and eventually, every location closed.
Beefsteak Charlie's is a victim of the food buffet trend
There are many reasons restaurants don't survive, but one of the key reasons Beefsteak Charlie's struggled so much was the food buffet trend. Food buffets became increasingly popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and the magic of gorging oneself held on until the 1990s and early 2000s. When Beefsteak Charlie's decided to jump on the trend, it went hard – from the salad bar to bottomless cocktails. There may have been immense interest in the deal, but the only people benefiting were the customers and not the restaurant itself.
Beefsteak Charlie's took its tagline, "I'll feed you like there's no tomorrow," very seriously and wanted to provide its customers with a great experience. Still, after so many years of practically giving away food and drinks, it couldn't keep up with the costs. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1989 and the remaining locations closed one-by-one over the next 15 years until they were completely erased in the mid-2000s.