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Steakhouse chain Sizzler is making a comeback with a refreshed new look even as the fast food industry continues to face a challenging environment that has led to countless closures.
Creative agency Tavern, charged with helping the brand reinvent itself, said the steakhouse had been a pop culture icon in the 1980s and 1990s on the West Coast, 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, announcing plans to refresh the brand last year. The company said in a 2024 press release that it leveraged “the sentimental value associated with the brand” and planned to “compete with fast-food giants like McDonald’s and offer a more appealing alternative to 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 was seeing sales at updated restaurants increase 47%. One of them saw its sales increase by 100%. The company currently has 80 stores and has completed nine renovations in the past two years. The company is also looking to develop a plan that franchise owners could adopt, and most of them are accepting it, according to the outlet.
The interior of a steakhouse renamed Sizzler. (Jason LaCras)
At its peak, Sizzler operated more than 700 restaurants nationwide, according to multiple reports.
Fast food companies are already facing margin pressures from supply chain disruptions and rising labor costs, while industry-wide traffic remains subdued. Declining foot traffic has forced many restaurants to deploy more promotions and even continue rebranding efforts to attract their core customers, who have reduced their discretionary spending.
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Sasha Shennikov, vice president of marketing, told QSR that the brand appears “everywhere” in Los Angeles with radio ads and billboards.
The interior of a steakhouse renamed Sizzler. (Jason LaCras)
Tavern focuses on the brand’s history and modernizes its strengths.
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“Instead of throwing decades of heritage into the logo, we built it by taking it apart, tilting it, and putting it together like a real cattle brand,” Tavern wrote previously.
The interior of a steakhouse renamed Sizzler. (Jason LaCras)
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He used a rich brown color as the hero of the identity palette and also reused the logo’s “ZZ” design (and the word “sizzle”) as secondary, fun design elements that make the tone of the brand more playful and distinctive.
