‘Bar Rescue’ host Jon Taffer is considering restaurants filing for bankruptcy and his show being renewed for a 10th season.
Steakhouse chain Sizzler is making a comeback with a new, updated look, even as the quick-service restaurant industry continues to face a challenging environment that has led to numerous closures.
Creative agency Tavern, charged with helping the brand reinvent itself, said the steakhouse was a pop culture icon on the West Coast in the 1980s and 1990s, but “over the years the brand faced an identity crisis and lost its way.” Today the agency said, “most Californians don’t even know where the nearest Sizzler is (if they even know the brand is still in business).”
The company is trying to change that and announced plans to renew the brand last year. The company said in a 2024 press release that it is leveraging “the sentimental value associated with the brand” and plans to “compete with fast food giants like McDonald’s and provide a more attractive alternative for parents looking for a dining experience that evokes comfort and familiarity.”
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Chief Growth Officer Robert Clark told QSR last month that the company is seeing sales increase by 47% in the renovated restaurants. One of them saw a 100% increase in turnover. The company currently has 80 stores and has completed nine renovations in the past two years. The company also wants to create a plan that franchise owners can adopt, and most of them agree, the outlet said.
The inside of a rebranded Sizzler steakhouse. (Jason LaCras)
According to various reports, in its heyday, Sizzler operated more than 700 restaurants across the country.
Fast food companies are already facing margin pressure due to supply chain disruptions and rising labor costs, while traffic remains subdued across the sector. Lower foot traffic has forced many restaurants to roll out more promotions and even pursue rebranding efforts to attract their core customers, who have pulled back on spending.
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Sasha Shennikov, vice president of marketing, told QSR that the brand is popping up “all over” Los Angeles with radio ads and billboards.
The inside of a rebranded Sizzler steakhouse. (Jason LaCras)
Tavern focuses on the brand’s history and modernizes its assets.
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“Rather than throw away decades of heritage in the logo, we built on it by taking it back, angling it and stamping it in place as a literal cattle brand,” Tavern previously wrote.
The inside of a rebranded Sizzler steakhouse. (Jason LaCras)
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It used a rich maroon color as the hero of the identity palette and also reused the logo’s ‘ZZ’ design (and the word ‘sizzle’) as fun, secondary design elements that make the brand’s tone more playful and distinctive.
