Ruth's Chris Steak House
Ruth's Chris Steak House is a Winter Park, Florida-based restaurant chain with one location in Birmingham, at 2300 Woodcrest Place, inside the Embassy Suites hotel in Birmingham's SouthBridge business park. Lanie Burbach is general manager and David Hicks is executive chef.
The original Chris Steak House was opened in 1927 by Chris Matulich in New Orleans, Louisiana's mid-city neighborhood, near the Fair Grounds Race Course. It was acquired in 1965 by Ruth Fertel, who updated the name of the business when she moved it after a 1976 fire. She sold the first franchise to long-time customer T. J. Moran a year later. He opened several more locations and interested other franchisees, growing Fertel's chain to 66 locations by 1998.
Fertel sold controlling interest in the chain to Madison Dearborn Partners of Chicago, Illinois in 1999. They continued the expansion, with 86 restaurants in the United States and overseas by 2004. The company went public in 2005 and was rebranded as Ruth's Hospitality Group in 2008 after acquiring two seafood chains from Cameron Mitchell Restaurants.
The Birminigham location opened in 1993 with diners surrounded by plantings and fountains in the skylight-topped atrium-style lobby of the Embassy Suites hotel. The restaurant also has private dining areas for parties of 10 to 300.
References
- Walsh, Jan (2008) "Still sizzling: Ruth's Chris celebrates 15 years in Birmingham." Birmingham magazine
- "Ruth's Chris Steak House" (August 17, 2022) Wikipedia - accessed September 11, 2022