Teenage me loved Beefsteak Charlies. During high school, so this would have been mid 80s NJ, they had an all-you-can-eat ribs deal for $9.99, and that included unlimited pick and peel shrimp and the salad bar. Our rule was you had to eat one plate of shrimp (homage to Repo Man), one plate of salad, one roll and only then could you start on the ribs. My record was 42, my best friend did 49 once. Our friends averaged mid 30s. My sister came once and ate 6. We always asked the wait staff to leave the bones on the table so we could count, and claimed to be building a cow.
Once in a while they wouldn't card us, so we'd have a couple of sneaky beers with the meal. The wait staff always seemed amused by us, we were polite nerds and suburban punks who made sure to tip well.
I ended up waiting tables on the lunch shift there in 1988, I think it was, for a month or two. It was what one would imagine from a chain restaurant in the 80s...kitchen staff overwhelmingly mexican, the managers were drunk and creepy older white guys, the good looking waitresses got the best shifts (and I'm sure were harassed mercilessly) and everyone wanted to be friends with the bartenders, who were stealing money like crazy and could dole out free spirits (us lowly wait staff had access to free beer and wine in our wait stations. The sangria was boxed white wine mixed with boxed burgundy, a splash of soda gun sprite and some fruit, all mixed in the glass or the pitcher as we took it out).
Good times!
posted by conifer at 6:31 AM on December 20 [11 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that a lot of places with "unlimited" anything saw COVID-19 as a hidden blessing. Sure, they had to either close or find a way to deal with the issues with DoorDash/GrubHub/UberEats/YourChoiceGoesHere, but those that could found themselves with an opportunity to kick the "unlimited" thing out the door and into the trash bins.

Beefsteak Charlie's was pretty big in my area growing up, competing with another chain called Charlie Brown's. You could go out and get a decent meal, and they weren't perfect, but they were a solid meal for the price. I mean, when I could, on a Saturday, take some of the money from my paper route, do a (fairly long) walk, have a steak and a bunch of the salad bar, then relax a bit in a nearby park and walk home? That was a good deal.

I miss places like this, honestly.
posted by mephron at 6:32 AM on December 20 [2 favorites]

" It emphasized an all-you-can-eat philosophy. For a flat rate, you could partake of their epic salad bar and drink as much beer win or sangria as you wanted. A very popular item on that salad bar, especially with my family, were giant bowls of unlimited pre-peeled shrimp."

"They would also have various forms of entertainment depending on the location. This included comedy, live music, and even audience participation talent shows. Once you sat down at a Beefsteak Charlie’s they wanted to keep you there as long as they could, and they often succeeded."

All you can eat food and drink, live entertainment and low prices? What kind of business model was this?

(I do, however, fondly remembering having a birthday party as a kid at Beefsteak Charlies)
posted by milnak at 9:09 AM on December 20 [2 favorites]

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