In 1965 a woman named Ruth Fertel bought an existing business called Chris Steak House. She re-named it after herself, but wanted to keep the original name too. So....Ruth's Chris Steak House. It's a good name, because you remember it. Ruth Fertel died in 2002. There is now a chain of these restaurants following her original business plan.Why is it called Ruth's Chris steak house?
Ruth Fertel obtained a home equity line to buy Chris SH in NO.She kept the name of CSH in order to retain customers that were brand loyal. A fire destroyed it causing Ruth to relocate.The agreement forbade the use of CSH at another location. She changed the name to RUTH鈥橲 CHRIS STEAK HOUSE.
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Yes, the real reason it it Ruth's Chris Steak House is because of the fire. Ruth Fertel bought Chris Steak House and a kitchen fire forced her to relocate. Her purchasing contract did not allow her to use the name Chris Steak House in another location, thus she added her first name to the original.
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Why is it called Ruth's Chris steak house?It USED to be a good Steak House. Now the steaks come pre-cut and cryosealed. The Cooks (not Chefs) at the franchises do not even have to cut the meat. Furthermore, how many restaraunts do you know that are really nice that serve cream corn like Ruth's Chris Steak House.
i herd they some good ole steaks!Why is it called Ruth's Chris steak house?
Ruth's Chris Steak House" is such a tongue-twister that one restaurant critic suggested it be used as a sobriety test: anyone who could say that name three times certainly couldn't be intoxicated.
The year was 1965, and Ruth Fertel was looking to buy a business. The 38 year-old divorcee from Happy Jack, Louisiana was a Tulane University lab assistant in New Orleans. But she knew she couldn't send her two sons to college on her $4,800 annual salary, so she began scouring the classified ads. A tavern? No, she hated drunks. A gas station? Boring. Then she saw in the classified ads, that a restaurant near the Fairgrounds racetrack called the Chris Steak House was for sale. "Oh," she thought, "I'm sure I could do that!"
Ruth Fertel had never worked in the food service business, but her can-do drive was well established. She had graduated from high school at 15 and earned a chemistry degree from LSU at 19. So against the advice of her banker and her attorney, she mortgaged her house for the $18,000 asking price, plus $4,000 more for supplies, which the banker had patiently explained she would need. They might have objected even more strenuously if they had known Chris Matulich had already sold his 60 seat steak house six times, repeatedly buying it back on the cheap when the latest owner had failed or given up.
Ruth didn't know she was being suckered. She was too busy learning about hostessing, waitressing, cooking, bartending, bookkeeping and butchering 30-pound loins of beef (no easy feat for a 5'2" 110-lb novice). She was undaunted by her lack of restaurant experience, and worked tirelessly seven days a week to learn about every aspect of the business. Customers admired her honesty and hard work, and soon she was serving 35 steaks a day for $5 each, at a small profit.
Ruth's unlikely break came a few months after opening when Hurricane Betsy devastated New Orleans. With the electricity knocked out, her meat supply would soon spoil. But her gas broilers still worked, so she cooked free steak meals for the disaster victims and relief workers, a gesture that won her recognition and many new customers. With business eventually booming, Ruth opened another branch close to the original. This prompted a legal spat with Chris Matulich that led her to append her first name to his, creating the famously tongue-twisting Ruth's Chris Steak House. "Frankly, I've always hated the name," she would later say, "but we've managed to work around it."
With her background in science, she looked for the optimum way to serve her customers the finest steaks available. Ruth designed a broiler that let her cook the USDA prime, corn-fed steaks at a searing 1,800 degrees and then began serving them on hot plates to keep the steak hot throughout the meal. Those same broilers and plates are still found at each location today. She soon became a Lousisiana institution in a city famous for exceptional food.
Ruth's obsession with quality, in addition to her hands-on style of direction, simply did not fit what she saw as cookie-cutter restaurants serving unexciting food. So it was not until 1977, 12 years after buying the Chris Steak House, that she was talked into the first franchise by a loyal customer. He opened in Baton Rouge, 90 miles up the road. She developed a two-step process of service and quality that permeates every store and franchise: First, follow the Golden Rule; Second, never skimp on quality. To this day, every location has the same menu for consistency, and to avoid the cookie-cutter look, she insisted that each location be unique in design and atmosphere. In 1985, the Austin franchise opened at 3010 Guadalupe as only the 12th Ruth's Chris in the nation. There are now 89 locations in the United States and four foreign countries.
Adapted from the 2003 Forbes magazine article by Paul Lukas.
Ruth's Chris Steak House" is such a tongue-twister that one restaurant critic suggested it be used as a sobriety test: anyone who could say that name three times certainly couldn't be intoxicated. The restaurant Ruth Fertel bought in 1965 was named "Chris Steak House," and she acquired the right to use that name as long as the restaurant remained in the original location. But after a fire forced her to move, she needed a new name. Adding her name to the logo seemed the simplest solution and "Ruth's Chris Steak House" was born. It has proven to be effective as people remember the name because it's so unusual. It has also had an additional benefit. . . people stopped calling her Chris.
Chris Steak house is a very old establishment. Very well renowned, especially back in its time. It had (has) a certain way of preparing steaks and became to be known as Chris steaks, sorta like 'chicken fried steak. Then, in about 1948 it was bought by a person named Ruth and, as it was going bankrupt, she revitalized it and soon it was a very large chain across the U.S.
I know what you mean about, why don't they drop one of the names?! I always wondered what was up with that as well. Then I saw a show on the History Channel in the past year that explained it all. So, there ya have it!
Have a Good One!
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