Here's When Steak 'N Shake Starts Serving Lunch

Sometimes, you eat an early breakfast, then you find yourself craving a burger and milkshake before it's even noon. Especially for those living in the American Midwest and Southeast, Steak 'n Shake might seem like the perfect solution. How early can you hit up the joint for lunch, though?

Folks have been patronizing Steak 'n Shake since 1934, when Gus Belt opened his first location in the town of Normal, Illinois. Belt served premium Steakburgers and milkshakes from the beginning. He would actually bring in barrels full of round, sirloin, and T-bone steaks, then grind them up in view of customers to prove just how authentic and fresh the meat really was. For decades, the company's "In Sight It Must Be Right" motto worked wonders for them. Eventually, Steak 'n Shake was even doing well enough to add options like chicken sandwiches and breakfast options to its menu, according to QSR Magazine. However, back in 2008, Biglari Holdings took over Steak 'n Shake, and the business has since undergone many changes. So, are the lunch hours still the same?

If you see a Steak 'n Shake restaurant open during the a.m. hours, you might be concerned that it's only serving breakfast. Worry not, for Steak 'n Shake's menu (seemingly last updated in April 2022) serves its classic lunch-and-dinner offerings. There are a handful of Steakburger combos (fries and drink included), some specialty burgers, a couple of discount steak items, a few chili-based dishes, and snackable sides. To drink, one can find the usual sodas, water, iced tea, coffee, and milk, as well as the iconic milkshakes with classic and specialty versions available. There's also a kids' menu with grilled cheese, hot dogs, and more. No separate dinner menu exists and breakfast is altogether absent. If a Steak 'n Shake is open, it's serving lunch! Gone are the days when you could start your day with a cereal milkshake (via PR Newswire); the closest you'll get now is a banana shake.

So, what time do Steak 'n Shake locations open? It varies, but 10-10:30 a.m. seems to be the standard. This also means most Steak 'n Shakes start serving lunch at well before noon.

There was a time when Steak 'n Shake's operating hours and lunch hours weren't necessarily one and the same. What happened? As mentioned, the past decade or so has brought many changes to the company. Before Biglari Holdings bought the chain in '08, the business was losing $100,000 a day, per QSR Magazine, so these changes weren't exactly unwarranted. The menu was streamlined and franchising became the new focus by the late 2010s, according to Nation's Restaurant News.

The pandemic naturally caused further problems for the full-service, sit-down business model, and USA Today reported dozens of locations shutting down in 2020. Without their dining rooms open, many locations couldn't turn a profit. As Steak 'n Shakes re-franchised and eventually reopened, table service was replaced with counter service and kiosks. Revenue has plummeted over the past couple of years, as shown by Statista, yet Biglari claims the business is still profitable and that this is all a part of the plan. YouGov found that nearly 4/5 of all Americans are aware of this brand and roughly half of them approve of it. So, maybe all this streamlining was a good choice. It's hard to deny that it makes it a lot easier to figure out when Steak 'n Shake starts serving lunch!