I have always found Ruth’s Chris Steak House to be a tongue twister. I don’t know why they just didn’t call it Ruth’s Steakhouse or Chris’ Steakhouse. My best theory is that there was a bunch of people in the family or neighborhood named Chris. There was Christopher, Cristine, Christian, and of course Christopher Junior and all that stuff. Because there were so many, everyone wanted you to know that it was Ruth’s Chris that owns it. Just like my Grandma who has two sons-in-law with the same name and my late Uncle was forever known as “Betty’s Tom.” Maybe Chris was Ruth’s son, daughter or husband. It wasn’t that other Chris who was Ruth’s brother’s daughter or Ruth’s cousin’s husband.
Recently, I was corrected. Who knows why I never bothered to read the company history on the website, but there was actually a Chris that had nothing to do with Ruth. Chris Steak House was in a down and out section of New Orleans when Ruth Fertel decided to buy it in the 1960s. Instead of changing the name, she called it “Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.” It sure probably saved a ton of money on signage because she would just have to put a sticky note or tap in a little plywood board to ad the Ruth part. Pretty ingenius.
Now, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse is a national chain. What if someone else bought it. Maybe a guy name Horatio would buy it and it would be Harold’s Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Then, later on a lady would come along and it would be Ellen’s Harold’s Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. At that point, they would probably call it EHRCS (pronounced Eric’s). But then Harold’s wife and Ellen’s husband worked there as equally as they did, even though Ellen and Harold owned it before their respective marriages. Then, what would happen after that is they would ad little hash marks or little slanted lines under the names, so it would go like this:
That is what would be on the menu, but they would probably come up with some logo with all the names around it, similar to the design of one of those Grandma sweatshirts that has all the kids names on them with hand prints. Expensive, you say? Expensive to keep changing the corporate name? They wouldn’t have to keep changing the name with the U.S. Government. They would just tack up little boards or signs every time someone new came around or got married. All the locations would do it and it would be sort of one of those unspoken things. People in the communities would probably have to come up with their own name for each location based on geography and proximity to the nearest Radio Shack. Sort of like “Mickey D’s” or “that restaurant by the movie theater.” Hey, it could work. You would just have to show up, though, because directory assistance would have no earthly clue what you were talking about.
