'The Prime Rib Was Out Of This World' — Customers Remember How Good This Steak Chain Was In The '80s

If you came of age during the heyday of Chili's or celebrated special occasions at Outback Steakhouse, you have this OG of casual dining restaurants to thank: Steak and Ale. For many Americans who dined out from the 1970s to the 1980s, Steak and Ale represented a special time and place of unlimited salad bars, middle class elegance, and affordable steak dinners. It's one of the failed restaurant chains we actually miss. 

The restaurant was founded in 1966 by the godfather of casual dining, Norman Brinker, in Dallas, Texas. After rising through the corporate ranks at Jack in the Box, he sold his shares and moved to the Big D to do his own thing. With a small loan, he dreamed up a steakhouse experience that middle class families could afford. At the time, steakhouses were reserved for formal affairs and business dinners. Steak and Ale, on the other hand, had dark wooden booths, freshly baked honey wheat bread, and a Disney-ish Tudor-style decor that somehow worked. 

Its menu featured cult favorites like Hawaiian chicken, Kensington club steak, and its signature herb-roasted prime rib. Steak and Ale grew to more than 100 restaurants before being sold to Pillsbury in 1976 and folded into its restaurant group. Eventually, the chain became part of Metromedia Restaurant Group, which also owned brands like Bennigan's. But by the 2000's, financial trouble hit. Metromedia filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and many fans were left wondering, whatever happened to the Steak and Ale chain?

In nostalgic corners of the internet, memories of Steak and Ale live on. In a 1980s fast food forum on Reddit, on user wrote: "My all time favorite restaurant. The salad bar was to die for, and the prime rib was out of this world." Another user recollects: "Steak and Ale was amazing. Like dining in a tastefully decorated medieval castle with the best salad bar imaginable." Many diners remember it as the place their families went to for birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries. The dark, wood-paneled dining rooms were meant to evoke an English tavern and left a lasting impression. Yet another fan recalled: "It was dimly-lit and ambient inside, you never see that these days, everything's lit like a dentist's office. I drove by it recently and they flattened the structure. poof [sic]."

Happy endings do exist, however, because Steak and Ale also got a second life after bankruptcy. The revival was led by Dallas-based Legendary Restaurant Brands and its CEO, Paul Mangiamele, who claimed the comeback was a labor of love after growing up with the restaurant chain. After years of false starts and delayed plans, the first Steak and Ale officially reopened in Burnsville, Minnesota, in 2024. As of 2026, the Midwest location, based inside a Wyndham hotel, is the sole flagship of the revival. For now, the owners plan to slowly rebuild the chain, rather than rapidly expand like it did during its original heyday.