Long before it became shorthand for a flashy night out, Sizzler earned a permanent place in pop culture thanks to White Men Can't Jump.
In the 1992 sports comedy starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes, trash talk spills off the blacktop when Kadeem Hardison’s Junior famously taunts Harrelson’s Billy Hoyle with the line about “goin’ Sizzler.” The phrase briefly crossed over into real-life sports slang—an early ’90s boast implying the game was already won and the post-game steak dinner planned.
At the time, the joke landed because Sizzler was everywhere. Founded in 1958, the casual steakhouse chain once boasted more than 700 locations across the United States, making it a familiar destination for family dinners, team celebrations, and budget-friendly steak nights.
Over the decades, however, shifting dining trends and internal struggles took a toll. Today, Sizzler operates just 74 restaurants nationwide.
The decline wasn’t sudden. The brand endured two bankruptcies—first in 1996, then again in 2000—while competitors modernized and consumer tastes moved away from traditional buffet-style steakhouses.
Yet despite the steep contraction, Sizzler never fully disappeared, and now the company says it’s laying the groundwork for a return.
According to Penn Live, Sizzler Chief Growth Officer Robert Clark believes the current revival effort differs from past attempts.
Clark, who has been with the company for more than four decades, said the focus is finally narrow and deliberate. “Our current leadership is much more focused on hey, let’s take the best of Sizzler and let’s make it even better,” he told the outlet.
A major pillar of that strategy is remodeling. Updated locations have delivered noticeable results, with remodeled restaurants seeing sales increases of roughly 47 percent. Clark emphasized that physical upgrades play a critical role in attracting diners.
“We feel like we have a really great brand here,” he said. “We constantly pop up in pop culture… remodeling is probably the single biggest driver of guests in the restaurant.”
At the same time, Sizzler is revisiting what made the chain resonate in the first place. Vice President of Marketing Sasha Shennikov told QSR that the company has been studying its longest-running locations to understand why some restaurants survived multiple reinventions.
“Everything we did was trying to dig into what made Sizzler so great in the first place,” she explained.