Sizzler shows segment-bending potential while still looking to grow after 50 yearsSizzler shows segment-bending potential while still looking to grow after 50 years

Lisa Jennings

Of the many advantages to being a soccer mom—weekend-killing hours in the hot sun watching games, smelly socks and shin guards—a big plus is that it gets you out of town.

Happily for me, traveling means going to restaurants, in our case, in large, diverse clusters of preteens, grandparents, younger and older siblings, and, of course, parents. We are one large and boisterous focus group, most of us wearing the team’s color: traffic-cone orange.

Last week, my 12-year-old’s team played in Moreno Valley, Calif., about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. This is a part of California where many chains are feeling the pain of the housing crisis and high gas prices. Brand new malls sat quiet as ghost towns, and there were miles of half-built housing tracts. It also is a town ripe with chain restaurants. Fortunately for us, most were empty. Over three days, we hit them all: Chili’s, Subway, Jamba Juice, Pizza Hut, Denny’s, Coco’s, Starbucks, Starbucks and Starbucks again.

One restaurant visit stands out: Sizzler.

This 300-unit chain, based in Culver City, Calif., celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It once had more than 700 units in the 1980s, only to fall into bankruptcy in the 1990s, when more than half of the domestic units were shuttered.

Around 2000, however, Sizzler’s previous owner, Worldwide Restaurant Concepts, began moving the brand away from the buffet concept that many blamed for the chain’s earlier downfall. The salad bar stayed, but the menu now focuses on grilled steaks, seafood and chicken. In 2005, Worldwide sold the chain to Australian firm Pacific Equity Partners, which continued to evolve Sizzler, attempting to edge it into casual dining with the test by franchisees of full-service units. Earlier this year, PEP put Sizzler up for sale but then halted the sale plans because of declining market conditions.

Sizzler, with its order-and-pay-at-the-counter-first format, is an example of the blurring lines between quick service, fast casual, casual and fine dining. Most in our party had never been to a Sizzler and were baffled by the idea of ordering a steak and a bottle of wine at a counter, even at such a low price point. Sensing our confusion, the manager had a server seat us in the empty dining room. With a flourish of slightly tongue-in-cheek hospitality, he brought out the two bottles of wine we had ordered and poured the adults each a sip to taste. It was an endearing grasp at fine dining at an $11.82 average check.

Like our preteen boys, who attacked the sundae bar like a plague of neon-orange locusts, Sizzler seems in transition. It’s showing signs of growing up and shaking off the baby fat of its image as a buffet concept. But it’s not quite sure what it wants to be yet.

Our party left the Sizzler that night happy and sated, with ice cream cones in hand. The team took first place in the tournament, and Sizzler, as a brand, probably won a few return customers.