Victoria Station (restaurant)

Victoria Station was a chain of railroad-themed steakhouse restaurants. At the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, the chain had 100 locations in the United States. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1986. The last remaining restaurant in the former chain was located in Salem, Massachusetts until it abruptly closed in December 2017.
A four-restaurant chain in Malaysia continues under the Victoria Station Restaurant name with a train theme but a significantly different menu; however, it claims an independent heritage, whereby the founding family thought up the concept on a London Underground train while on holiday in England.
The concept evolved from a Cornell University School of Hotel Administration graduate project, according to original owners Bob Freeman, Peter Lee, and Dick Bradley, all 1963 graduates of the school. The first location was opened in San Francisco in December 1969 and was a 158-seat restaurant located on the Embarcadero at Broadway that was constructed out of five boxcars and two cabooses around a central lobby-service area. Another source incorrectly claimed an April 1969 opening date. The restaurant was grossing $90,000 monthly during its first year of operations.
By the end of 1978, Victoria Station had 97 restaurants, all company owned.
The chain was designed to attract members of the baby boom generation. The theme of the restaurant was loosely based on London's Victoria Station. Antique English railway artifacts were used as decor inside, and the exteriors were composed of American Railway cars, primarily boxcars, with a signature Caboose placed in front. On the "entry platform" to each restaurant was a London-style phone booth. Prime rib was the featured item on a limited menu that included steaks, barbecued beef ribs, and shrimp done in a variation of scampi style known as "Shrimp Victoria". Most of the restaurants used authentic railway cars for dining areas, often boxcars or cabooses.
The Victoria Station chain flourished in the 1970s, according to a memoir by former Victoria Station corporate marketing manager Tom Blake. The company was among the first restaurant companies to offer its employees stock options and an ESOP program. The peak of success of the Victoria Station restaurant chain took place at the time of the culmination of a joint venture with Universal Studios, which resulted in the opening of Victoria Station Universal City, a location on the "hill" near where Citywalk now stands. At its peak, the Universal City location of Victoria Station was among the highest grossing restaurants in the United States. The coaches in the restaurant used four of the coaches from Flying Scotsman's tour of America. They were repainted and converted into dining cars.
The U.S. operations of the Victoria Station chain began running into financial difficulties in the mid-1980s, causing gradual shutdowns of the franchise restaurants. In May 1986, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. bankruptcy court. Eight months later, it was reported in January 1987 that the company had a restructuring plan in place that would require it to sell a number of restaurants.
A new company, called Victoria Station Acquisition Corporation and was controlled by Lowell Farkas, purchased the Victoria Station trademark and 11 of the restaurants for $6.5 million and the assumption of a $1 million tax liability.
There was a similar chain called "Twickenham Station" in Alabama and Florida during the same time span. They were not connected. (Huntsville AL, Montgomery AL, Mobile AL, Pensacola FL)
Singer Johnny Cash produced a promotional album of train songs for the chain, titled Destination Victoria Station, which was then sold in the restaurants. This included the title song of the same name written and performed by Cash specifically for the album.
The chain was a sponsor of the United States Ski Team at least from 1977 to 1979 For several years, the Park City Ski Area (Mountain Resort) -- at which the US Olympic Ski team practices -- named one of its ski lifts Victoria Station.
Alfred Hitchcock flipped the railroad switch for the official opening of Victoria Station Universal City, on May 2, 1977. That restaurant included a funicular which carried patrons 600 feet up from the lower parking lot.
The following locations in the U.S. are known to have at one time housed a Victoria Station restaurant:
In 1979, Daiei and Wendy's International formed a joint company called Wenco Japan Inc. that operated Victoria Station franchise steak houses and Wendy's fast-food restaurants in Japan. In 2002, Daiei sold Wenco Japan, which included the Victoria Station franchised restaurants, to Zensho for 4.60 billion yen. The brand continues to be operated in Japan under the Zensho firm.