In May 1965 , a fair sex named Ruth bought a chophouse from a man named Chris .
Ruth Fertelwas a divorced mother of twoworkingas a lab technician at Tulane University when she saw an ad for the sale of a New Orleans steakhouse in the newspaper classifieds . The father , Chris Matulich , had opened the property in 1927 and was ready to retire . So Fertel mortgaged her house to borrow $ 22,000 from the bank — enough to take on the $ 18,000 asking cost , plus other expense — andpurchasedthe 60 - seat eatery .
Fertel threw herself into her new life history as arestaurateur , charging$5.50 per steak andhiringmostly other single mother to do them . But while the ownership had changed , the name had n’t : Matulich allow her keep calling it “ Chris Steak House ” on the stipulation that it remain in the same construction .
For the next 11 long time , it did . Then , in 1976 , a kitchen firecausedso much damage that Fertel was forced to find new premises . In a little over a week , she hadconvertedher provide hall down the street into a amply functioningrestaurantand christened it “ Ruth ’s Chris Steak House . ” That way , she kept the name recognition of the sure-enough one without breach her correspondence with Matulich .
The update ease another issue , too . As her son Randy Fertelwrotein his memoir , The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak , “ she had grown to hate being called Chris , or , worse , being taken for Chris ’s married woman . Customers angling for a table on a packed night sometimes claim that theyknew Ruth before she married Chris . ”
But if you think the phraseRuth ’s Chris Steak Houseseems intimately suit to a list oftongue - twistersthan a restaurant foretoken , you ’re not alone . One restaurant critic reportedlyjokedthat enjoin the name three times fast could do work as a sobriety test . In fact , even the owner herself abhorred the sobriquet .
“ I ’ve always hated the name , ” FerteltoldFortunein 1998 , four years before her passing . “ But we ’ve always wangle to function around it . ”
