Outback Steakhouse

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Outback Steakhouse is a casual dining American 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.

Founded in February 1988 in Tampa, Florida by Bob Basham,Chris T. Sullivan, 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 nearly 70 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. Other OSI restaurant chains include Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy's, Flemings, and Cheeseburger in Paradise.

Contents 1 Theme 2 Menu 2.1 Dietary Restrictions 3 Community involvement 4 Political involvement 5 Advertising 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Theme

The Outback Steakhouse has a strong "Australian" outback theme, exemplified by Boomerangs, stuffed crocodiles, maps of Australia, a reproduction of Ned Kelly's helmet, whips, didgeridoos, and paintings by Aboriginal artists. Although new locations are featuring a more subdued, streamlined decor, which is also being implemented in remodels of existing stores. Menu items are largely named after places in Australia, including the Ayers Rock Strip, Alice Springs Chicken, and Rockhampton Ribeye. Others are named after animals, like Kookaburra Wings, or Wallaby Darned. Some items are named after agricultural professions, such as the Jackaroo Chops or Drover's Platter. Others still take their names from pop-cultural references, such as the Mad Max Burger (which has since lost the "Aussie" nickname, and is now known as the bacon cheese burger) and Grilled Shrimp On The Barbie. In early 2007 Outback removed some of its Australian flair from the menu. The New York Strip Steak, Ribeye, and Pork Chops are some of the more popular menu items to lose their "Aussie" nicknames. Despite the décor and naming of menu items, the restaurant is not a true Australian steakhouse, but decorated in the manner similar to that of American Chinese restaurants. The stereotypical "Australian" decoration is an exaggeration of what an Australian steakhouse is perceived to be based on the view presented from films such as Crocodile Dundee.

[edit] Menu

Despite its theme, Outback Steakhouse serves American cuisine, with Creole influences. All meat is heavily seasoned, including a 17 spice blend for the steaks themselves. Most seafood items are served with a Creole remoulade sauce. 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 so Outback has a non-standard meat temperature (rarity) scale.

The use of fats in such liberal quantities has brought the chain under fire from health advocates: Men's Health magazine recently condemned Outback's Aussie Cheese Fries as "The Worst Food in America," with 182 grams of fat and nearly 3,000 calories per order.^[1]

The Bloomin' Onion is a signature Outback item. It is a one pound onion cut to 'bloom' open, breaded, deep-fried and served with horseradish-mustard aïoli. Other restaurants offer items similar to the Bloomin' Onion, as in Chili's Awesome Blossom and Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon's Texas Rose.

Outback's bar selections are also highly regionalized. Most Outbacks serve Foster's Lager, an Australian brand of beer largely sold outside of Australia. Other Australian beers include Coopers Premium Lager, Coopers Sparkling Ale, Coopers Pale Ale 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.

One menu item that appears on American menus 'Chocolate Thunder from Down Under' will never be listed in Australia as it has a very different meaning. It is offered simply as 'Chocolate Thunder'

[edit] Dietary Restrictions

The lamb served at Outback is sourced from New Zealand and is certified halal by the Islamic Council of New Zealand^{[citation needed]}.

Outback also offers a gluten free menu including most of its normal menu items with slight variations.

[edit] 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, 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.^[2]

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.^[3] 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.^[4]

[edit] 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.^[5][6]. 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.^[7]

OSI Restaurant Partners is a boycott target by Life Decisions International for funding associated with Planned Parenthood. ^[8]

[edit] Advertising

• The company owns two blimps, the Bloomin' Onion I and Bloomin' Onion II, named after their famed appetizer.^[9]

• Outback Steakhouse is the title sponsor of the Outback Champions Series tennis events.

• General (ret) Tommy Franks sits on the Board Of Directors for OSI Restaurant Partners, INC., which owns Outback Steakhouse.^[10]

• In the commercials, the song is a tune composed by Kevin Barnes and his band, Of Montreal. The song is called "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games". The jingle in the commercial is a little different from the song itself, with minor altered lyrics.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Outback Steakhouse
• Salon article on Outback Steakhouse