The MAHA Shake-Up at Steak ‘n Shake

Ryan Knutson (0:04)

In many ways, Steak and Shake is like any other burger chain.

There's fries, milkshakes, obviously burgers. Our colleague Heather Haddon went to visit one in Indiana a few months ago.

Heather Haddon (0:18)

It's on a strip of lots of other restaurant chains, you just drive along, it's chain after chain after chain.

Ryan Knutson (0:25)

And inside...

Heather Haddon (0:26)

People grilling, people frying, flipping burgers, attending to the drive-through.

Ryan Knutson (0:34)

But in a lot of other ways, Steak and Shake is different.

Heather Haddon (0:38)

There's lots of branding within the restaurant that says, you know, 100% grass-fed beef, 100% beef tallow.

There's the bottles of Coca-Cola that have sugar cane instead of high fructose corn syrup. So there's definitely a lot of branding there that shows that this is a different kind of restaurant.

Ryan Knutson (0:59)

Giant American flags wave out front. There are Patriot Shakes on the menu. Fries are served in gold cups.

What did it smell like?

Heather Haddon (1:09)

It smelled beefy.

Ryan Knutson (1:13)

These changes are all aimed at capturing a new customer base. People who support the MAHA movement make America healthy again.

Heather Haddon (1:22)

Yeah, I think all these changes from the beef towel to the grass-fed beef is really about leaning heavily into this MAHA universe and the consumers who are motivated to go out to eat based on it. So it is explicit in their branding, in their marketing, and some of this MAGA coding is their new target market.

Ryan Knutson (1:49)

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knutson. It's Friday, September 11th.

Coming up on the show, the MAHA Shake Up at Steak and Shake.

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Ryan Knutson (3:50)

Steak and Shake has been around since the 1930s. Its first location opened up in the town of Normal, Illinois.

It was founded by an enterprising couple named Gus and Edith Belt.

Heather Haddon (4:00)

Him and his wife purchased some fuel stations, and one of them had a restaurant, which back in the day was serving chicken, beer, that kind of food. And then Normal made a push to go dry at this time, and Gus Belt, who seemed like he was a smart entrepreneur, said, I need a new concept.

Ryan Knutson (4:23)

That new concept was, of course, burgers and milkshakes.

SPEAKER_5 (4:28)

Almost everywhere you go these days, you'll find a Steak and Shake, proof of the pudding of how popular Steak and Shake has become.

Heather Haddon (4:34)

Even from those early days, in some ways he had kind of a MAHA bent because he would grind the beef at times right in front of people to show how fresh it was, that this was not just a normal burger, this was like fresh steak between buns for your family.

SPEAKER_5 (4:52)

Insight, it must be right, Steak and Shake.

SPEAKER_6 (4:56)

Yum, try some.

Ryan Knutson (4:58)

Over the decades, Steak and Shake expanded across the Midwest with several hundred restaurants.

The chain cycled through a string of owners. Then in 2007, a new owner stepped in. His name was Sardar Baglari.

Heather Haddon (5:12)

So let's introduce our listeners to Sardar Baglari.

He is a real character. He lives in Texas in San Antonio, and from a very young age, he's been interested in investing. He is a real American success story of self-made guy who was interested in investing in a diverse set of options. So he's been interested in restaurants, he's been interested in oil and gas and in insurance. So Steak and Shake was actually one of his first big investments.