Outback Steakhouse is an American casual dining restaurant chain based in Tampa, Florida, with over 900 locations in 21 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It specializes in USDA Choice and Prime steaks and other offerings in an Australian-inspired environment.
Outback Steakhouse, 1243 W. March Lane, Stockton Ca, 95207 209-954-9615
Founded in February 1988 in Tampa, Florida, by Bob Basham, Chris T. Sullivan, Trudy Cooper and Tim Gannon, it is owned and operated in the United States by OSI Restaurant Partners, and by franchise and venture agreements internationally. In 1997, it entered the South Korean market through the franchise agreement with Aussie Chung Inc. Currently, there are 101 Outback Steakhouse locations throughout South Korea. On June 14, 2007, OSI Restaurant Partners completed a stock repurchase plan, and the company is now privately held.
In March 2009, Outback Steakhouse Canada abruptly closed all 9 locations in the province of Ontario, citing poor economic conditions. In June 2009, an Outback restaurant reopened in Niagara Falls. Three Outback locations continue to operate in Edmonton, Alberta. Canadian Outback restaurants began in 1996.
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Menu
Despite its theme, Outback Steakhouse serves American cuisine, with Creole influences. All meat is lighty seasoned, including a 17 spice blend for the steaks themselves. Outback bills its food as "full flavor". It fries its food in vegetable shortening, and uses real butter and heavy cream in many dishes. Burgers are ground from beef tenderloin. Menus are highly regionalized. Crawfish appear in some dishes in Southern American locations, as do sweet potatoes. Eastern locations often feature Maine Lobster tails, while western locations frequently serve Alaskan King Crab legs and cakes.
Although a number of menu items are grilled, steaks are prepared on a griddle using butter as a heat transfer medium. Because they are cooked solely by conduction, their surfaces are cooked much more rapidly than their centers, and Outback follows a standard meat temperature (rarity) scale.
The use of fats in such liberal quantities has brought the chain under major fire from many health advocates: Men's Health magazine condemned Outback's Aussie Cheese Fries as "The Worst Food in America," with 182 grams (1,638 calories) of fat and nearly 3,000 calories per order.
The Bloomin' Onion is a signature Outback item. It is a one pound onion cut to 'bloom' open, breaded, deep-fried and served with mayonnaise-horseradish sauce. Other restaurants offer items similar to the Bloomin' Onion, as in Chili's Awesome Blossom (discontinued) and Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon's Texas Rose. Many of the Blooming onions have come under fire for high calorie counts, sometimes going over 1,500 calories
Outback's bar selections are also highly regionalized. Most Outbacks serve Foster's Lager, an Australian brand of beer exported around world. Other Australian beers served often include Coopers Premium Lager, Coopers Sparkling Ale, Coopers Pale Ale, Toohey's New Draught, and Boag's. Wine selections also vary, but often include those from Australian wineries like Yellow Tail, and Foster's Group holdings Lindemans and Rosemount Estates.
It should be noted that many of the Outback Steakhouse's signature and popular items such as the Bloomin' Onion and the Aussie Cheese Fries are not popular in Australia nor can even be found in most parts of Australia.
Dietary Considerations
The lamb served at Outback is sourced from New Zealand and is certified halal by the Islamic Council of New Zealand.
Outback also offers a gluten free menu which includes most of its normal menu items with slight variations.
Outback does not display full nutritional data on their food.
Community involvement
Outback has sponsored numerous sports organizations and competitions, including the NCAA Football Outback Bowl, NASCAR, the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am on the Champions Tour, the Outback Champion Series of Tennis, the Outback Steakhouse distance classic 1/2 marathon & 6K, and the NFL (supported by the Outback Steakhouse John Madden NFL Cruiser).
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Outback was one of the first groups to deliver food services on-site to rescue workers and emergency personnel.
The company has also strongly supported coalition troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has organized multiple missions to feed soldiers overseas. Following Operation Enduring Freedom, Outback sent fifteen volunteers to Kandahar in June 2002 to feed 6,000 servicemen. It repeated the trip in January 2003, feeding an additional 13,000 in Kandahar and Bagram. Following Operation Iraqi Freedom, twenty-one volunteers were sent in January 2004 to cater for troops in Baqubah, Mosul, and at Al Asad Airbase. In September 2005, volunteers prepared food for 16,000 on the USS Nimitz at Camp Le Monier. In October 2009 Outback came to Camp Phoenix as well as other bases in Afghanistan to feed U.S. and coalition troops their popular fare.
Political involvement
The company and its founders are major contributors, via the Outback Steakhouse PAC, to the Republican Party, contributing $303,015 and $334,197 for the 2000 and 2004 election cycles, respectively.. The Outback Steakhouse PAC itself is one of the largest donors in the food and beverage sector, second only to the National Restaurant Association, which itself represents 300,000 restaurants.
