Steakhouse interior with neon lights and full bar – Lone Star Steakhouse Guam/Facebook
American history has seen the decline of more than one once-thriving steakhouse, from York Steak House to Ponderosa to the Mr. Steak restaurant chain. At the end of 2025, we ranked the popular steakhouse chains. If we were making a list like this 20 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to exclude then-industry giant Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon. At its peak, Lone Star had 267 restaurants in most states in the United States. Similar to familiar names like today’s LongHorn, Lone Star was a mid-range steakhouse, better than a casual restaurant but cheaper and more formal than a fine-dining steakhouse.
Time has not been kind to Lone Star, and by 2019, the company closed its last four remaining North American locations. It turns out there’s only one Lone Star location left in the world, and it’s not in the continental United States. In fact, it’s in Guam. Its website returns an error, but an active Facebook page shows the location is currently open. Social media shows that Guam’s Lone Star still operates very much like a familiar chain steakhouse: with happy hours, Bloomin’ Onion-like offerings, juicy steaks and thick burgers. Holiday celebrations include special dinners such as a turkey plate with all the trimmings. The restaurant recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and gives the impression of a thriving business. But the same can’t be said for the chain it once belonged to, which is dead due to a series of poor ownership decisions.
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What happened to Lone Star Steakhouse?
Lone Star Steakhouse defunct locations – The Image Party/Shutterstock
Outback Steakhouse may have originated in Florida, but Lone Star Steakhouse is located further up the East Coast. The first Lone Star location opened in 1989 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was the brainchild of Jamie B. Coulter, who was a big shot in the Pizza Hut franchise at the time. His restaurant concept is based on a Texas roadhouse: cozy, laid-back, and fun. The chains rose into the air like lightning and expanded rapidly. Maybe also In fact, very quickly.
Despite the looming financial crisis (later known as the “Great Recession”), Lone Star’s management continued to push forward with opening new restaurants. This strategy works until it doesn’t…and then the shutdown begins. Massive competition and declining sales plagued the chain, and it was sold twice to private equity firms, which were essentially left in limbo by questionable decisions (like selling real estate and leasing back) that temporarily delighted shareholders but ultimately doomed the business.
In late 2016 and early 2017, 14 Lone Star stores in nine states closed overnight with no explanation. As 2017 wore on and the number of restaurants dwindled to 30, former top management denied any knowledge of what was going on and the media struggled to make sense of a disjointed and contradictory story. It only took about two years for these lagging locations to close, often without any notice. It’s heartwarming to see Lone Star managing to survive with just one store in Guam, but sad to think that greed and unwise management led to the collapse of a thriving chain.
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Read the original article on Foodies.
