“We Goin’ To Sizzler, We Goin’ To Sizzler…”

The Los Angeles Times reports today on Sizzler’s attempts to make a comeback in the minds of consumers.

Every change has been focus-grouped to within an inch of its life. And scarcely for nought: When the company brightened the color scheme and decor of a prototype restaurant outside Sacramento, visitors remarked on the sudden improvement in the food, which actually had been upgraded the year before.
Sizzler’s recovery will be interesting to watch, as the business graveyard is filled with companies that couldn’t overcome a damaged reputation. (Howard Johnson’s, anybody?) Sizzler President & CEO Ken Cole insists that a residual fondness for the chain among people who remember the good old value days will carry it through.
“We’re rebuilding a great American brand,” he says.

According to the company’s web site, there isn’t a Sizzler around me for hundreds of miles. Anybody been lately? Can the brand be revived?