Charleys Philly Steaks is an American restaurant chain of

Philly cheesesteak A cheesesteak (also known as a Philadelphia cheesesteak, Philly cheesesteak, cheesesteak sandwich, cheese steak, or steak and cheese) is a sandwich made from thinly sliced pieces of beefsteak and melted cheese in a long hoagie roll. A popular r ...

stores headquartered in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

. Formerly known as Charley's Steakery and Charley's Grilled Subs, the franchise was established in 1986 on the campus of

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. By 2017 there were 600 locations in 45 states and in 19 countries. Charleys is expected to have doubled in size in 2021.

History

While studying real estate at

, Charley Shin worked in his mother's Japanese/Korean restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. A wrong turn on a family trip to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

resulted in Charley's discovery of the Philly cheesesteak. Charley convinced his mother to take a break, sell the restaurant, and invest her life savings of $48,000 in “Charley’s,” a restaurant across the street from Ohio State's campus. Charley's first decision in the restaurant was to turn the grill around to face the customers, so they could always see their food being cooked, a move that would later become the trademark of the Charley's Philly Steaks chain.

Gosh Enterprises

Charleys Philly Steaks is a subsidiary of Gosh Enterprises, which is solely owned by Shin. Gosh also owns the Bibibop Asian Grill chain, which had purchased the leases for the defunct

ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, or simply ShopHouse, was an American restaurant chain specializing in Southeast Asian cuisine. Its name derived from the shophouse, a common building type in urban Southeast Asia. The first ShopHouse opened in ...

chain.

References

;Footnotes ;General sources * * *

External links

Official website
Companies based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area Fast-food franchises Restaurants in Ohio Submarine sandwich restaurants Fast-food chains of the United States Restaurants established in 1986 1986 establishments in Ohio American companies established in 1986 {{US-restaurant-stub