Shasta (soft drink) produced its first soft drink, a ginger ale. Until the 1950s, the company's products were mainly mixers for alcoholic drinks: mineral water, club soda, and ginger ale. Shasta introduced new marketing strategies in the 1950s, which became industry standards: the packaging of soft drinks in cans, the introduction of low calorie soft drinks, and the distribution of cans and bottles directly to grocers through wholesale channels. By 1960, Shasta was a well-known brand in the western United States. During the 1960s, under the ownership of Luke Wienecke, Shasta was sold to Consolidated Foods (later known as Sara Lee) and was
Steak and Ale were operated under the S&A Restaurant Group brand. The S&A Restaurant Corp bankruptcy in July 2008 also affected the Bennigan's restaurant chain, also owned by that company; all of the company-owned stores closed the same day as the Steak and Ale restaurants. Franchised Bennigan's locations remained open. The MetroMedia Company also owns the Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouse chains, which were not affected by the bankruptcy filing; they are operated by a different subsidiary of the company. In 2013, a Facebook page was created for the comeback of Steak and Ale and Bennigan's CEO Paul Mangiamele announced that the chain will