This story originally appeared in the Eater SF newsletter.
It takes some digging to find something food-related that truly surprises me. Yet, I was surprised to learn about “cook-your-own” or “grill-your-own” steakhouses — a genre that emerged during the midcentury, and continues to persist in some parts of the state of California.
It’s much like it sounds: Restaurants provide raw steak for diners to cook via a grill. We’re talking USDA cuts, such as T-bones and sirloin, according to newspaper archives spanning the ’70s and ’80s. Sides typically included baked potato, salad, and garlic bread. And unlike Korean barbecue — which has its own history dating back to the Goguryeo era from 37 BCE to 668 CE — these cook-your-own steakhouses typically featured a centralized grill where patrons saddled up to cook their steaks before bringing them back to the table for eating.
The origins of this amusing operation were difficult to trace. At least one example, San Diego’s long-running Turf Supper Club, appears to have installed a grill around 1955. However, advertisements began to pop up in archives around the ’70s, such as one in 1970 for Richmond restaurant Stanley’s Steakhouse, located in “El Portal II-San Pablo.” The ad copy is winkingly clever, with taglines that proclaim “a delicious T-Bone steak cooked your favorite way” or “to your own perfection,” a place where “your steak is always cooked just right.” The prices were also astonishingly low, even with inflation accounted for. The aforementioned Stanley’s quoted dinners starting at $1.95 ($16.60 in 2026 money); while a 1974 special at Fairview Steak House near Iowa City featured a 2-for-1 special where diners could buy one large sirloin steak dinner at $3.95 ($26.46 in today’s money).
Archival grill-your-own restaurant ads liked to have fun with taglines. Masood Shah/Eater/Richmond Daily Independent, August 7, 1970/Iowa City Press-Citizen, November 21, 1974
If it seems like a confusing format, know that it also didn’t sit well in 1985. An uncredited review in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of the three-story restaurant C.H. Ewing’s Steakhouse & Lounge in Bradenton, Florida, seemed downright appalled at the notion of cooking your own steak:
When ordering the entree, we found out about Ewing’s innovative concept of cooking your own steak. A huge charcoal pit is in the center of the room where, after you have ordered your dinner, you may grill your own steak to the exact degree of doneness you desire. And, this is where my idea of dining out departs from C.H. Ewing’s. As I watched the smoke curling up from this massive barbecue grill, I asked myself, ‘Do I want to pay $11.95 to toil over a hot grill with smoke infiltrating my hair and clothes giving me the aroma of a Memorial Day cookout?’ I mean, does anyone have to hesitate over that question? We opted to give the chef an extra dollar per order and let him adorn himself with smoke.
Susan Lampert Smith of the Wisconsin State Journal put it more succinctly: “Why would anyone pay good money to go to a restaurant where you have to grill your own food?”
Despite this attitude towards the cook-your-own steakhouse, there are still a smattering of restaurants that continue the tradition to this day. Trevor Easter co-owns just such an establishment in Sacramento called the Butterscotch Den. It’s a revamp of Arthur Henry’s Supper Club in Oak Park, which was itself modeled after that aforementioned, still-running, cook-your-own steakhouse spot in San Diego, Turf Supper Club.
As a former San Diegan, Easter frequented the Turf Club, attending dinners, wedding receptions, and even funerals there. When Arthur Henry’s went up for sale, the owner was hoping for someone to keep the grill concept going; Easter and his bar group, Irish Hospitality, were game.
“The Turf Club is a mecca for industry people,” he says. “That’s the hang; everyone in San Diego who works in the industry, they get off shifts, you see chefs coming in with their roll-up [of] knives with them, people are hanging out. I always loved that idea. So we thought, ‘Let’s take a stab at this.’”
The Butterscotch Den is Sacramento’s ode to 1970s GYO steakhouses. Anna Wick
The Butterscotch Den opened in 2022 with a ’70s redesign, a playlist stuffed with funk and soul classics, and plenty of drinks, including a freezer martini. The meat — cuts like top sirloin, New York strip, and a 12-ounce rib-eye — is butchered in-house, and is never frozen. Butterscotch Den also serves a burger made with steak trim, vegetarian options like the portobello mushroom sandwich, plus a hot dog or sausage for cooking on the grill. To keep the vintage vibes going, there’s also fondue for two, “A throwback to sharing good times!” the menu proclaims. The team also occasionally throws together a taco menu with marinated carne asada and veggies.
Diners receive a set of clean cooking utensils with a selection of seasoning on hand — salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Old Bay, of course, but also a Montreal steak seasoning the team makes, with a vegan version also available. Sausage and burger accoutrements include ketchup, mustard, and relish, as well as the “Snug Junior Sauce,” a take on In-N-Out’s burger spread.
“We’re cleaning up after you, and you’re going to spend 20 percent less.”
Diners are encouraged to ask the team for tips on how to grill — they “are so excited to show you how to do it and what to do,” Easter says — and when asked about rules or faux pas, Easter was hard-pressed to think of any. “Make a mess. That’s the point,” he says. “There should be seasoning all over the countertop. You should burn your buns because you were too busy talking to your friends, and we give you another set of buns. All those things should go wrong.”
Easter acknowledges that a grill-your-own-food place is perhaps “an extrovert concept,” saying the space has become a place for first dates to stand around the grill and cook, while getting to know each other. The hospitality industry is (in part) about providing human interaction, Easter says. “At a time when loneliness is at its peak, standing around a grill and starting a conversation with somebody or sharing a grilling tip is the icebreaker to feeling comfortable,” he says. “It’s like going to an arcade bar: There’s another set of entertainment that forces you to engage with somebody.”
GYO steakhouses feel primed for the eatertainment era. Joe Matty
There’s also a practical side to having diners cooking their own food: It’s more affordable. Without having a cook making each item, Easter guesstimates he can bring down the price of a USDA Prime rib-eye from, say, $65 at a steakhouse to $43 at Butterscotch Den (that cut’s current price). He also points to their burger, which is a half-pound, 80-20 burger that goes for $13, which could go for much higher elsewhere. “It allows you to trim some of the — for lack of a better term — fat off of the cost of food,” he says. While the customers may be doing the cooking, Easter points out that the Butterscotch team is “doing the dishes and we’re making drinks for you. We’re cleaning up after you, and you’re going to spend 20 percent less.”
“It is closer to dinner and a show, but you’re the main character.”
Still, Easter is smart enough to know that the grill-your-own-food restaurant is not for everyone. Although Butterscotch has hosted plenty of events and celebrations, he knows it exists in a “novelty space” of restaurants. “It’s entertainment,” Easter says. “It is closer to dinner and a show, but you’re the main character, and that’s why our tagline is, ‘Compliments to the chef’ — that’s you.”
So who is the grill-your-own steakhouse for? Easter would say everyone: older generations appreciate the setup and music being played, Gen Z loves the nostalgia and kitsch of it all, families bring kids who love to grill their own hot dog and play games on the free Pac-Man machine. “It’s one thing to have a really cool cocktail or do something esoteric or avant garde, but it’s another thing to strike a nostalgia chord,” Easter says. “And that is why I proudly own this place and know that I don’t make much money off of it, but it is my favorite thing to talk about because it’s not a business — it’s something else.”
The Butterscotch Den, 3406 Broadway, Sacramento
GYO steakhouses keep the costs of your favorite cuts affordable, according to the Butterscotch Den’s co-owner Trevor Easter. Anna Wick
Where (Else) to Grill-Own-Steak in California
1116 25th Street, San Diego
The prototype for Arthur Henry’s Supper Club (now the Butterscotch Den), Turf Supper Club opened in 1950 as Turf Club, initially serving just cocktails. Five years later, “a gas line was plumbed into the dining room where a new grill had been installed for the use of patrons to cook their meat the way they wanted it … and so the following year the name settled on Turf Supper Club,” according to the site’s history page. The most expensive steak here is the 16-ounce “Ribeye Delmonico,” which goes for $36, and goes as low as $13 for an 8-ounce marinated pork loin chop or $9 for a portobello mushroom sandwich. (Sides are available for purchase, but, per the menu, “All steaks and kabobs offered come with a large slice of our house-prepared garlic bread.”)
9191 Deschutes Road, Palo Cedro
Palo Cedro Inn opened in 1972, featuring both indoor and outdoor grills, and a full bar. Per the Record Searchlight, the staff cooks the daily specials and will “also grill your half-pound cheeseburger and other a la carte items until 4 p.m.” Diners will grill their own steaks after that, such as cuts of top sirloin, New York, T-bone, and rib-eye, with the most expensive cut being a 6-ounce filet for $25; the restaurant also serves bourbon-glazed salmon and chicken, burgers, and hot dogs.
2428 South Garfield Avenue, Monterey Park
Opening in 1955, the Venice Room built its reputation not just on the grill-your-own steak concept, but also its impressively inexpensive lunch special that goes for $17 (steak only) or $24 (steak and sides and dessert). It was so impressive that Eater reporter Lucas Kwan Peterson visited the restaurant twice, writing an ode to the restaurant in 2015 and returning in 2016 to showcase the Venice Room in an in-depth video. (Sure, it was $8.75 for the lunch special back then, but whomst among us hasn’t changed in the last decade?) The restaurant also has a lively karaoke scene.
Located in Golden Hill, this old-school favorite is the original DIY steakhouse for the 21+ crowd. Guests can choose from reasonably priced proteins such as top sirloin, pork loin chop, and skirt steak, along with kabobs — vegetable, beef, chicken, and more. All steak and kabob entrees are served with a slice of garlic bread. Don’t be alarmed when the protein arrives raw to your table — head to the centrally located grill, stocked with condiments and utensils, and start grilling the steak at the communal cooking station.