Mr. Steak Restaurants...

I worked at Mr. Steak at 44th and Sheridan as well.  It indeed was #157.  What a great place and what great friends I made!  My best friend to this day is Steve Nelson whom I met there.  I started in 1976 when Gary Crumbaker was the manager.  He left and eventually Bill Andersen took over as manager.  I continued to work there during weekends and breaks during college at CSU until 1981.

 I am trying to organize a reunion of #157 members (all years) for the summer of 2009.  I am working with Roberta (Barr) Andersen to organize it and try and track down names of people who worked there during those years.  Please contact me (or have anyone contact me directly) if you would like to participate or to help with any peoples' names you might have or remember.  I have about 60 names so far.

BTW, I would love to get the ceasar dressing recipe!

Doug Roesener
Doug@roesener.us

To all inquiring about Continental Burgers - I was a Senior Grill Chef at Mr Steak in Southeast Grand Rapids, MI on Outer Beltline near 28th St in the early 70's.  It was a franchise owned by a very driven man - Howard Schelde(sp?) and a partner - that location was always in the top 5 or 10 nationally in sales.  I make Continentals to this day - I don't recall the name of the meat packer they used there - I moved out of "GR" 36 years ago.  The Continentals came pre-made.  They were two thin oval patties of what we now call 80-85% lean ground (need that much fat to stay together) - I think each patty was about a fifth of a pound.  The filling was two things only - pasteurized process swiss cheese ONLY and fresh (when patty was frozen) mushrooms. The 'shrooms and process swiss were diced to about 1/2" dice.  Put about 1 to 2 tablespoons on one patty, cover with second patty and crimp edges gently but completely so there are no holes.  Grill till medium, turning as little as possible and use some kind of cover on top last 2 minutes or so to help cheese melt.  That restaurant served them always on buttered, then grilled on one side, light rye bread.  The burger was served open face with the second bread slice cut in half and set on each end.  Everyone ate them with a knife and fork!  They were hugely popular!!  I love them, make them once a year or so.  I also have the recipes we used for steak kabobs and the marinade, plus the beef and mushroom based rice they were served on, and the Black Russian burgers.  For me to share those recipes? Ask. Maybe I will. 

When I was the Chef at Baby Does in Denver my district Chef gave me some busy work.  We had the only large copy machine with a coalator.  He had me make up a copy of the companies entire reciepe formulary.  It covered all specialty rests.  Fom Blind Monk and Crawdaddy's to the 94th Aero squadron.  It was 1200 pages of 1 page recipes!  Of course I kept a copy.  With a decent glossay in front it was great as I had a basic rec. for almost anything at my fingertips

 
I worked one summer during college at the Mr. Steak in Lawrence, Kansas.  I have always wanted to be able to make the marinade for the kabobs.  Can any of you knowlegable ex-Mr. Steakers provide this recipe?  I have searched online several times before, and there is an entire thread elsewhere of people looking for this recipe!
 
thanks so much. 
 
 

I was a "sous chef" at Mr. Steak in 1981 during high school. I remember that their chicken fingers were sooo good and they had this marinated steak (or ground beef--can't remember) which was kind of a rectangular shape which was good.

http://frkandspn.blogspot.com/

Sometime between the end of September and the end of October 2009 the Mr. Steak in St. Charles, MO has closed. The door has a piece of paper stating they were closing due to "an emergency". Both their voice and fax phone numbers have been disconnected. The home page is still up. I have not yet tried any other means to contact them or the owner(s) or find out what is going on. A family member had seen coupons in a recent mailed circular from them, and I know they had increased thieir birthday offer from $7 to $9.

Very unfortunate...

I worked at the St. Charles location back in the late 80's and early 90's. It is true- they did close recently. Heard it was a combination of slow business and some debt a previous owner left on the restaurant. Anyone looking for recipies? I still remember them- let me know :)

I found a handful in Michigan. As someone pointed out, most of the ones in western Michigan became Finley's with mostly the same menu (one Finley's in Lansing has since closed). Traverse City, Petoskey, and the five in Grand Rapids (one of which was already mentioned) all became Schelde's. Only the Traverse City Schelde's still operates under that name; Petoskey became Rio Grand Steakhouse and was torn down along with a KFC to make way for a Walgreens.

The Finley's locations were Battle Creek, Holland, Jackson, Kalamazoo (2), Lansing (2), Muskegon and Okemos. Holland didn't last long as a Finley's and later became Pietro's before being torn down, and Okemos is now a mattress store. Lansing's Cedar St. location seems to have relocated shortly before the Finley's conversion from 5919 S. Cedar (later a Schlotzsky's, now closed) to 6300 (the current Finley's). Or maybe Finley's relocated.