7 Steak ‘n Shake Memories Hoosiers Over 50 Share

At Steak ‘n Shake, you used to flash your headlights for service and eat off a tray hooked to your car window.

If you’re a Hoosier over 50, you can probably still picture it.

Here are the Steak ‘n Shake memories many Hoosiers over 50 share.

1. Lafayette Road Drive-In

You could order from your car at the Steak ‘n Shake drive-in on Lafayette Road in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Star reported on November 7, 1954, that the drive-in at 2660 Lafayette Road would open Thursday morning.

The notice called it the first appearance in Indiana of the five-state chain.

The Indiana Historical Society has a 1958 photo of another Indianapolis location, on Keystone Avenue.

2. Carhops and Curb Service

Steak ‘n Shake ran curb service with carhops while Gus and Edith Belt owned the chain.

If you pulled in, you flashed your headlights and ate from a tray hinged on your rolled-down window.

Waiters and waitresses wore black pants, white shirts, bow ties, white hats and tennis shoes.

The older crowd usually went inside to eat.

In the 1980s, the chain dropped curb service and began installing drive-thru windows.

3. China and Flatware

If you ate inside Steak ‘n Shake during the 1960s and 1970s, your meal came on white china with flatware, while fast-food rivals turned to disposable packaging.

Under chairman Ed Kelley, the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis says, Steak ‘n Shake added table delivery on china and flatware.

Carryout was different, and the chain had a word for it.

4. Cooks in Plain View

At Steak ‘n Shake’s original restaurant in Normal, Illinois, founder Gus Belt often wheeled in a barrel of steaks at busy times and ground them while diners watched.

The chain’s slogan was “In Sight It Must Be Right.”

James Williamson Jr. was hired in 1985 to run Consolidated Products, the chain’s parent company.

He brought the slogan back, moved the kitchen back out into the dining area and restored the black-and-white look with a visible kitchen.

With the kitchen back in the dining area, you could see where your Steakburger was made.

5. Steakburger Patties

The Steakburger at Steak ‘n Shake began in 1934 as a patty ground from T-bone, strip steak and sirloin.

Gus Belt’s grilling method seared in the juices and crisped the exterior.

One of the chain’s slogans was “Famous for Steakburgers.”

If you ordered a Steakburger in the early years, you were eating ground steak.

You can still order a Steakburger at Steak ‘n Shake today.

6. Ice Cream Milkshakes

Milkshakes at Steak ‘n Shake started in 1934 as thick vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, made with ice cream the Belts made themselves.

Your milkshake from the early 1970s may have come from a mix.

Longchamps, a steakhouse chain that owned Steak ‘n Shake from 1969 to 1971, swapped the ice cream shakes for shakes made from a mix.

In fall 1971, the Indiana-based Franklin Corporation bought control, and new chairman Robert Cronin immediately reverted to the old ice cream method.

Whether you remember a mix shake or an ice cream shake may depend on the year you first ordered one.

7. Late-Night Hours

A 1954 Indianapolis Star notice for Steak ‘n Shake’s Lafayette Road drive-in listed hours of 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily.

Under Ed Kelley, many Steak ‘n Shake locations stayed open 24 hours a day.

At a 24-hour location, you could order your Steakburger at any hour of the night.

Ed Kelley of Sharpsville

Ed Kelley, a Sharpsville, Indiana, native, was 64 when he bought a controlling interest in Steak ‘n Shake in 1981.

Kelley’s pick to run the company, Williamson, trimmed the menu by cutting rarely ordered items that took a lot of preparation.

By the time Kelley died in 2003, the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis says, he had doubled the size of the company.

Indianapolis-Area Closures

At least 46 corporate Steak 'n Shake locations closed in the first quarter of 2019.

By late April, the total had climbed to more than 60.

Four Indianapolis restaurants were temporarily closed, on East 96th Street, East 71st Street, West Washington Street and West 38th Street.

A fifth, in Carmel, had also closed.

The 2020 Carhop Revival

In August 2020, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported that Steak 'n Shake had brought back carhop service at about 250 of its 500-plus locations.

That included two dozen restaurants in the Indianapolis area.

The chain had tested the model in some markets earlier that year.

At those locations, your order arrived on a tray that attached to an open car window.

You could order through the mobile app, take food to go or eat at socially distanced outdoor picnic tables.

The chain had closed 57 restaurants in the first quarter and posted an operating loss of nearly $11 million.

Beef Tallow Fries

Steak 'n Shake decided in January 2025 to cook its fries in beef tallow.

The chain also uses tallow for its onion rings and chicken tenders.

If you order fries today, the website says they're cooked in beef tallow.