7 Steakhouse Chains That Have Permanently Closed Their Doors

Today, devotees of the American institution that is the steakhouse know all the ins and outs of getting the most out of a meal there. There's just something special about going to a steakhouse, and we're familiar with the signs that you're eating at a quality steakhouse.

Here's a surprising fact: At the time of this writing, there are over 4,000 premium steakhouse restaurants in the U.S. If you're thinking that seems low, that's what we thought, too. There are a number of steakhouse chains that are struggling to stay in business, and that got us thinking about those once-beloved chains that have disappeared forever.

It's not all bad news, and besides wallowing in a bit of good, old-fashioned nostalgia, we also discovered that some favorites are poised on the brink of a comeback. Ground Round was once widely-known as the fun steakhouse where you could throw your peanut shells on the floor, and, in 2024, it was announced that the chain — which once had hundreds of restaurants — was rebranding and reopening in hopes of staging a complete revival. That might make Gen-X hearts happy, but it's not all fun and games: We found these chains that have disappeared for good.

Seattle-based fans of the steakhouse will be familiar with BOCA, the restaurant group that included a pizzeria and bakery in addition to several BOCA Restobar & Grill locations. Although the group weathered the difficulties that came with the pandemic, 2024 kicked off with some heartbreaking news that would ultimately lead to the end of the chain.

That was the death of the steakhouse's founder Marco Casas Beaux, who passed away just months after announcing plans to further expand his business. He had reportedly been looking forward to retiring and handing the business over to his daughter, Andrea Casas Beaux. Although it was initially said that there was every intention of reopening the group of restaurants, they remained closed for a month after his passing in early January.

By the middle of February, it was further announced that the restaurant group would be shuttering for good amid financial difficulties that compiled in the weeks after the founder's death. At the time, the family started a fundraiser in hopes of raising the money needed to return Casas-Beaux's remains to Argentina. A statement released by the family read (via Capitol Hill Seattle), "Due to legal complications outside of Connor and Andrea's control they were not able to retain any control of the restaurants and therefore have lost access to any and all Boca assets."

If you or anyone in your family happened to live in the Northeast at any time during the 1960s and 70s, there's a good chance that Valle's Steak House was the site of countless memories. At the chain's height, it was serving around 200,000 customers per week, and individual locations were so popular that some could handle 1,400 people at a time. The chain was founded in 1933 and grew to a staggering size, but it's perhaps unsurprising that a restaurant that big was hard hit by rising gas prices and a subsequent economic downturn of the early 1980s.

Those financial hardships came not long after the death of founder Donald Valle in 1977 and a corporate restructuring done in the years following that death. In 1982, it was reported that Valle family members would be serving only as consultants, and in the following years, the chain was plagued by challenges stemming from rising costs and financial strife.

Valle's began selling off locations from their chain, with the last of these corporate-owned restaurants shuttering in 1991. There are a few footnotes to this, though: The last official Valle's lasted until 2000, as the founder's daughter had opened her own independent location. There's an interesting bit of trivia that goes along with the Valle's location in Braintree, Massachusetts as well. It was sold to a Canadian chain, then it changed hands again and became the location of another steakhouse chain on our list of now-defunct chains, Hilltop Steak House.

When the 1980s were wrapping up, things were still pretty good for Hilltop Steak House. It was one of the busiest restaurants in the country, with millions of customers annually and several locations across the Northeast.

In 1987, The Boston Globe did a spotlight on the chain to find out just why it was so popular, and employees described owner and founder Frank Giuffrida as wildly generous. Head chef Lenny DeRosa said, "Frank looks at the dishes and says, 'Do you think we are giving people enough to eat?' I tell him, 'Frank, if you put on any more, the food will fall off the plate.'" The numbers were staggering, including up to 250,000 pounds of meat being delivered to one location every week. Riding high on success meant big expansion plans, ramping up to five total locations. But by 1995, one of them had already closed.

Hilltop's founder died in 2004, but the chain continued for several more years. Newer locations were the first to close, including the Braintree location in 2007, while the original Hilltop hung in there until 2013. The Hilltop franchise also included a butcher shop that closed in 2015. When the closure of the final location was announced, customers showed up in droves for one last meal. At the time, customers lamented the fact that the quality had decreased since the death of its founder, just as they lamented the loss of a restaurant that had been a staple for decades.

There's a lot that's changed since Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse opened in 1993, but the draw of animatronic entertainment remains the same. (Don't believe us? We'd like to remind you that one of New York City's standout sushi spots welcomes customers with an animatronic dinosaur.) Bugaboo Creek has the reputation of being one of a number of chain restaurants that were serving food that was sort of mildly acceptable, and they leaned hard on their gimmicky animatronics. It's probably not surprising that the slow death knell started ringing for the chain in 2010, with an announcement that the parent company, CB Holding Corp., was filing for bankruptcy.

Along with that filing was the closure of more than a dozen locations, with 12 making the cut to stay open. The following year, a change in leadership came with promises of a revitalization that included an overhauled menu – we know that some of the biggest red flags at a steakhouse start with the menu – contests, and an attempt at broadening their image from a steakhouse to a more everyday sort of restaurant with sandwiches and a kids' menu.

Fast forward to 2016, though, and with the closure of Bangor, Maine's Bugaboo Creek, the only remaining restaurants were one in Delaware and one in New Hampshire. Although information is scarce, those apparently didn't last long, either, and closed by the end of the year.

Victoria Station was, as the name suggests, a train-themed steakhouse. Opening in 1969, the quickly expanding chain counted Johnny Cash among fans. Cash didn't just partner with the restaurant to do commercials, though, it was also the inspiration behind Cash's 1975 album, Destination Victoria Station. The idea was that the album was going to be used to promote the chain, and according to columnist and author Tom Blake, he — as a regional manager and director of marketing for the business — had been instrumental in putting the album together (no pun intended).

The chain's post-Cash-promotion era was punctuated with difficulties, though. In 1986, it was reported that the chain still had 91 restaurants across the country, but was struggling with losses in the millions of dollars. They were looking at closures and restructuring in order to keep current on mounting bank loans. At that time, it was already reported that financial experts didn't see this one lasting, as it was too niche and had a format and vibe that the restaurant industry had aged past. The Los Angeles Times quoted one analyst as saying, "It had its day. That day went away with miniskirts."

Still, the last remnants of Victoria Station hung in there for a shockingly long time, and it was only in 2017 that the last location in Salem, Massachusetts closed. It's unclear what happened, but it was reported that the restaurant had a full schedule for its participation in a local Restaurant Week, and details about the closure were not forthcoming.

[Image by ChesterPlumfield via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Founded in 1962, the steakhouse chain, Mr. Steak, grew to more than 250 locations, thrived during the 1970s, and entered bankruptcy in 1984. That wasn't quite the end of the story, though, and it was relaunched in 1992 after an investment firm paid just $140,000 for a package deal that included everything owned by Jamco Ltd., including Mr. Steak.

At the time, that still included 57 operating restaurants, and the idea was that it was going to be overhauled in a steakhouse that would appeal to a middle and working-class clientele. It was rebranded as Mr. Steak's Firegrill, and it included ambitious remodeling plans (to the tune of $800,000 per location) to install open cooking areas, a Western décor scheme, and lighting that could simulate the movement of the sun and the night sky. The new owners suspected they knew what the problem was and promised that Mr. Steak was going to once again concentrate on serving up really good steaks, instead of a little bit of everything.

Just what happened to all the Mr. Steak locations isn't clear, but many closed in the 1990s. One final Missouri location did hang on until 2009, and it seems as though it was largely a victim of better restaurants serving better meals.

[Image by Wystan via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 2.0]

Many of our favorite steakhouse chains opened in the 1990s. Take Texas Roadhouse. Eating at the first Texas Roadhouse in 1993 involved an immersion in country flair, and that was only a year after the opening of the similarly-named Roadhouse Grill. As of this writing, Texas Roadhouse is currently beating the competition as the fastest-growing steakhouse in the U.S., but Roadhouse Grill hasn't been so fortunate.

In 2007, Roadhouse Grill filed for bankruptcy. There were a slew of factors blamed for financial difficulties that just kept continuing, including adding too many locations that weren't profitable in the aftermath of 9/11 and damages done by devastating hurricanes. Circumstances were so dire that in 2008, the remaining stores were closed amid an appeal to the courts asking for permission to just close the doors and walk away — the company couldn't afford to sell what physical assets it had. That seems to be what happened: Customers at the Seminole, Florida location simply found the doors chained one day. At the time, 57 locations had been bought with the intention of rebranding as Duffy's Sports Grill, but that fell through.

That wasn't entirely the end of the story, and in 2009, a group of former Roadhouse employees helped the Buffalo, New York reopen as, well, the Buffalo Roadhouse Grill. It survived until the end of 2020, when continued, COVID-related closures made business unsustainable.

Want to read more? Click here to learn about the post-COVID plight of independent restaurants.