The Sign of the Beefcarver was once a popular chain of cafeteria-style restaurants that served comfort foods like roast beef, beef liver and onions, turkey and dressing, meat loaf and baked scrod.
It became especially popular among the senior set, insisting that all dishes are "baked or steamed, never fried." Sites dotted Metro Detroit.
Here's the beef. (Company photo)
This week, the one on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn shut after 51 years. Now the sole survivor is at 27400 Woodward Ave. in Royal Oak, north of 11 Mile .
Dearborn employees were told at a meeting Monday morning that the day would be the restaurant's last, manager Russell Talbert tells Ann Zaniewski of the Detroit Free Press.
"We were happy to be here for as long as we were," Talbert said. "We’re sorry for all the customers that are finding out this way. There’s a lot of people that have been coming here since they were kids."
"We’re just losing business. We couldn’t keep the business up. . . . For me personally, I do the books at night, I can see that we’re not making a lot of money," he said. "For a lot of other people, it came as a shock."
The chain began in 1957 as an Early American-theme cafeteria restaurant with waitress service.
