Biglari’s chain hires ex-Trump HHS staffer as ‘chief MAHA officer’
SCHERERVILLE, Ind. — Steak ‘n Shake is executing a turnaround strategy that its executives describe as aligned with the Make America Healthy Again movement and President Trump’s brand of patriotism, and that the chain says is driving sales higher. The Indianapolis-based chain’s same-store sales rose 14% in the three months ended June 30 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to filings by parent Biglari Holdings. The gains come after roughly a decade of closures and declining revenue for the Midwestern chain.
Average restaurant visits per location at the roughly 400-unit chain grew 5.8% in the first half of this year, reversing a decline in 2024, according to location-data firm Placer.ai. The chain’s overall profit has improved since 2024 but has not returned to 2023 levels, and some locations have continued to close. Boes said prices have moderately increased to offset the cost of the ingredient upgrades.
The chain has swapped vegetable oil for beef tallow in its fryers, switched its beef to cattle raised on pasture grass, and moved to cane-sugar-sweetened Coca-Cola. Steak ‘n Shake also replaced a butter blend containing seed oil with Grade A Wisconsin butter. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has blamed vegetable oils for fueling obesity and inflammation, has applauded the moves. Boes said he keeps in touch with Trump administration officials about Steak ‘n Shake’s efforts and discussed seed-oil-free buns with Kennedy at a June Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match on the White House lawn.
The revamp is led by Sardar Biglari, an activist investor and conservative figure who also owns Maxim magazine, insurance providers, and oil companies. Biglari built a position in Steak ‘n Shake’s publicly traded shares starting in 2007 and later took the company private. In April he hired Michael Boes — a former Trump administration Health and Human Services staffer who had previously worked in the health industry — to serve as Steak ‘n Shake’s “chief MAHA officer.”
“This political movement didn’t come out of nowhere, right?” Boes said in an interview, referring to MAHA. “We don’t claim to be a salad chain,” he added, noting that ground beef makes up about 75% of his diet. “But I do think these foods in their pure form do have a health benefit.” Boes said the chain is responding to customers looking for fast food they “can feel good about.”
At the Schererville location southeast of Chicago, franchisee Keith Mitchell said the transition has brought new demands. He now has to change the beef tallow in his fryer each week instead of every 10 to 14 days with vegetable oil, and grass-fed beef costs more. Mitchell, 36, has raised prices this year to help cover the new ingredients, particularly the grass-fed beef. The chain’s food costs have grown this year as a result of its investments in quality, the company said.
Customers have noticed the changes. Lexi Carman, who recently drove 30 minutes from Beecher, Ill., to bring her two kids and two nieces to the Schererville location, said the family had visited just days earlier. “We were actually just here on Saturday,” she said, as the children munched Steakburgers and sipped milkshakes.
The chain has wrapped the strategy in patriotic symbolism. An American flag large enough to cover two school buses flies over the Schererville location. For the country’s 250th anniversary, locations served Patriot Shakes. Payment systems accept bitcoin, and Steak ‘n Shake began offering free supersize fry upgrades to Tesla drivers served in gold boxes after Elon Musk praised the chain online.
Boes launched a whirlwind restaurant and marketing tour, including a stop with Lara Trump at a Steak ‘n Shake earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. In August, Steak ‘n Shake posted on X targeting rival Five Guys, executives said, and the chain is using the ingredient revamp to differentiate itself without relying solely on discounts.
Steak ‘n Shake traces its roots to the 1930s, when Augustus “Gus” Belt bought a number of gas stations, including one with a restaurant in Normal, Ill. After the town voted to go dry, Belt switched to burgers and milkshakes from chicken and beer, grinding meat in front of customers, sometimes sourced from his own cattle. The chain expanded across the Midwest over the decades but by the 2000s was struggling and running out of cash. Biglari took Steak ‘n Shake private in 2007. By 2017 profit began to fizzle and then fell into losses; the chain closed around 200 locations between 2018 and 2024, with sales dropping by one-third to $760 million, according to market-research firm Technomic.
Some nutrition experts have been skeptical that the MAHA movement’s food priorities meaningfully improve human health. Alison Steiber, chief impact officer for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, pointed to the chain’s switch from soybean oil to beef tallow as an example. “Regardless of how you fry your french fries, they are still fried,” she said. Steak ‘n Shake does not make health claims about grass-fed beef or tallow, but the company believes customers feel better about the chain’s food. “We just tell them you can taste the difference,” Boes said while surveying the fry oil in the Indiana Steak ‘n Shake.