Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Moderator: Groceteria

luckysaver
Veteran
Posts: 295
Joined: 22 Feb 2007 17:10

Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by luckysaver »

In the Walnut/Diamond Area, there used to be two Sizzler restaurants. Now there are none.

- Nogales/La Puente, West Covina - demolished, the site is currently CVS Pharmacy (was an Albertsons-built Savon Drugs). I visited this location once when it was thriving, back in the early 1990's. This site had the old typeface logo and never became one of those newer locations currently advertised.

- Diamond Bar Blvd at the 60 Freeway, Diamond Bar - closed sometime last year, now open as an upscale chinese fusion restaurant, East180:Cuisine of China. Was built using the old typeface logo and closed with the newer logo.

luckysaver
Last edited by luckysaver on 07 Jan 2009 15:14, edited 1 time in total.
Jeff
Veteran
Posts: 940
Joined: 21 Nov 2005 21:44

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by Jeff »

The Montebello Sizzler burnt down over a year ago, and recently, they removed the signs on the building. The Sizzler sign on Beverly Blvd though is still there, and they have PODS located still in the parking lot. I don't know if they are planning to reopen eventually or if this is permanently closed. What is weird, at the time it burned down, it was still a very busy Sizzler considering its small size.

It hasnt been on their store locator since it burnt down.
javelin
Veteran
Posts: 143
Joined: 23 May 2006 16:28

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by javelin »

Jeff wrote:The Montebello Sizzler burnt down over a year ago
I hope the irony wasn't lost on that. The Sizzler in Victorville, CA closed years ago and has been hanging on as a Korean BBQ. In fact, every restaurant on that block has changed ownership at least once. The neighboring Mexican restaurant is on it's second incarnation and started life as an Arby's. The building across the street was a Chuck E Cheese, then became a ripoff called Buzz-E's Pizza Time Circus, then a church, a furniture store, a trade school and now vacant. The Coco's next to that was a ranch-style Big Boy, and a few hundred yards away is a former Fuddrucker's, turned nightclub.

And across the street is a Del Taco that hasn't changed hands since it was built in 1967.
Super S
Veteran
Posts: 463
Joined: 07 Jan 2006 00:40

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by Super S »

Sizzler hasn't really scaled back recently, but they closed a lot of locations in Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA about 10 years ago. Vancouver has no Sizzlers left. One by Vancouver mall is now Round Table Pizza, and the other on East Mill Plain was briefly a Denny's (which also has entirely left Vancouver) and is now a Chinese buffet restaurant.
User avatar
Brian Lutz
Veteran
Posts: 227
Joined: 08 Jul 2008 00:19
Location: Bellevue, WA
Contact:

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by Brian Lutz »

I only know of one Sizzler around here, which is in Tukwila near Southcenter Mall. I haven't ever been to that one (the only Sizzler I've been to in the past couple of years was down in Utah where they seem to be all over the place,) but apparently there are others in the Southern Puget Sound region (Tacoma, Olympia, etc.) and one in Bremerton on the other side of the Sound. I'm not in any of those areas often enough to have actually seen one though.

It would seem odd that there would be no Denny's left down in Vancouver though, since there's still plenty of them up here.
The Sledgehammer - Version 2.0 - Seattle Area Malls, Retail History, and other random things.
TenPoundHammer
Veteran
Posts: 225
Joined: 17 Jan 2007 21:05

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by TenPoundHammer »

Sizzler pulled out of Michigan I don't know how long ago. Mid 1990s perhaps? I'm finding no ghost listings for them on the Web.

One in Battle Creek opened in the 1970s as a HoJo restaurant, and was most recently a comedy club. It was supposed to have been torn down in 2006 for a Culver's, but that somehow never came to fruition, and I think it's still vacant. There were two in Grand Rapids as well, both on 28th St. One is now a Lone Star, and the other is now Mountain Jack's. Finally, one in Westland went through a rotation of other restaurants before taking its current identity as Buffalo Wild Wings.
User avatar
Groceteria
Great Pumpkin
Posts: 1927
Joined: 04 Nov 2005 12:13
Location: In the breakroom
Contact:

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by Groceteria »

TenPoundHammer wrote:Sizzler pulled out of Michigan I don't know how long ago.
Sizzler had a major meltdown in the mid 1990s and closed, as I recall, about half its locations nationwide.
User avatar
storewanderer
Veteran
Posts: 569
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 03:24
Location: Western United States
Contact:

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by storewanderer »

I think after that meltdown of the mid 90's where they basically lost their status as a sort of national chain, they were in bankruptcy in the late 90's. Sizzler is run by an investment firm now. They have opened some new locations, but it seems like location closures continue...
Photobucket now allows for comments on each photo! http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/StoreWest/
TheQuestioner
Contributor
Posts: 95
Joined: 28 Nov 2005 16:39

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by TheQuestioner »

I was not aware of that, though it makes sense. Sizzler seemed to be everywhere in the late 80's and early 90's. I remember them entering the DC area in the mid-80's with much fanfare. That was the first time I had ever heard of them. This was the "pastel-colored-box-with-Arial-font-signage" era, and they seemed to all close overnight some time in the early to mid 90s. I figured it was a "Jack In The Box" situation, because the few times i went there I found the food bland and undercooked. I thought the whole chain died until I can to CA and saw them, complete with new signage. They seem to be doing OK here, haven't seen any close in NorCal in the past few years. I tried them again recently and enjoyed my burger but the fries were as cold and limp as ever. I guess they have their customer base out there somewhere...
Groceteria wrote:
TenPoundHammer wrote:Sizzler pulled out of Michigan I don't know how long ago.
Sizzler had a major meltdown in the mid 1990s and closed, as I recall, about half its locations nationwide.
User avatar
runchadrun
Veteran
Posts: 618
Joined: 27 Dec 2005 14:29
Location: Granada Hills (Los Angeles), CA
Contact:

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by runchadrun »

At their peak in 1978 there were over 600 Sizzlers. They closed 130 stores in their 1997 bankruptcy, including most of their midwest and northeast stores. As of 2005 there were 226 US stores, 145 of which were in California.

Their first store was in Culver City in 1958, I'm guessing it was the one at Culver Center which was torn down and is now a Best Buy. (There is/was another one over by Fox Hills Mall but it was probably built later than 1958.)

In addition to expansion via franchises, this is the current strategy from a 2005 Times article:
Cole aims to rebuild Sizzler's appeal to what he calls the "skip generation," a term that almost evokes the "lost generation" of American expatriates who sat out the Twenties in Paris. In this context it means people aged 25 to 40 who fondly remember eating at Sizzlers with their parents in the '70s, but who abandoned the chain during the dark buffet years. Cole figures that as they raise families of their own, they're primed to return to a sit-down restaurant where they can order a steak dinner for $9 to $12.
rich
Veteran
Posts: 673
Joined: 15 Nov 2005 20:51
Location: Washington, DC

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by rich »

They built up their overseas presence in the 90s. They are omnipresent in Bangkok.
User avatar
Daniel
Veteran
Posts: 283
Joined: 11 Nov 2005 04:09

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by Daniel »

Their meltdown in the 90's reduced their Fresno presence to 1 restaurant. The Clovis location became Play It Again Sports, and the Blackstone and Dakota location became a Country Waffles restaurant. I do miss the TV ads with the whispered "Sizzler!" at the end.
lvkewlkid
Veteran
Posts: 140
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 13:30

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by lvkewlkid »

i recently found that Las Vegas has lost its Sizzlers, not sure why...
User avatar
storewanderer
Veteran
Posts: 569
Joined: 07 Nov 2005 03:24
Location: Western United States
Contact:

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by storewanderer »

It looks like the Las Vegas Sizzlers closed sometime between October and late December, perhaps not all at once. I understand they had a new franchisee in that market who took some corporate units a few years ago and signed a development agreement to build a number of new locations. As I understand it, they did at least get a couple new locations up.

I wouldn't be surprised to see at least some of them re-open in Las Vegas, but who knows. Just two Sizzlers left in NV now, a corporate unit in Carson City and one in Sparks (fully renovated recently) run by Sizzling Platter, the Utah-based franchisee.

I always liked this chain, but they seem to have been crippled with execution problems. They have a corporate unit in Auburn, CA that is spot-on every time I visit. Other units haven't been so consistent. Their prices, for what you get, are also on the high side now generally.
Photobucket now allows for comments on each photo! http://s196.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/StoreWest/
lvkewlkid
Veteran
Posts: 140
Joined: 25 Nov 2006 13:30

Re: Disappearing Sizzlers in your area

Post by lvkewlkid »

the one at Eastern/Tropicana has already been converted to some kind of burger place...
Post Reply