How Did Ruth's Chris Steak House Get Its Strange Name?

The story of how Ruth’s Chris Steak House began is interesting in it’s own right. However, most people want to know how it got its strange name. Well, it’s all part of the story! It began in 1965 when Ruth Fertel, a single mother of two, was working as a lab technician at Tulane University. She was barely making ends meet and needed something to change. One day, an ad in the newspaper caught her eye: “For Sale, Chris Steak House.”

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse original location

The Original Steak House

Chris Matilich had founded his restaurant in New Orleans on February 27, 1927. However, selling the restaurant wasn’t anything new. He had sold it six times and each time had bought it back at a bargain after the new owners were unable to make a go of it.

A Lab Tech Takes on a Cursed Location

It’s unknown whether he figured to cash out again and cheaply cash back in because when Ruth Fertel saw his ad, she saw no reason she couldn’t buy and run the restaurant successfully. Fertel held degrees in chemistry and physics. She had no restaurant experience at all. Regardless, she mortgaged her home for $18,000, purchased the restaurant, and learned the business on the job, forking out another $4000 for renovations and food.

In the next ten years, she went from selling an initial 35 steaks a day to 250 steaks a day. I would imagine that those booming sales had something to do with the now-famous butter and hot plate.

The Great Well-Done Steak Debate: Is well-done steak bad? I debunk the Bourdain ‘stinky meat’ myth & explore the temperature illiteracy of chefs who confuse a technical 160°F with burning a steak. Read More about the Well-Done Steak Myth

How Did Ruth’s Chris Steak House Get Its Name?

You can’t help but be struck by the strange-sounding name of Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Ruth Chris would sound like two first names, which would not be so unusual. But Ruth has an apostrophe, making it possessive — Ruth’s.

Well, now that you know that the original restaurant was called Chris Steak House (no, not Chris’), you can easily surmise why Fertel might change it to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, despite the strange sound of the name. But changing a successful brand for no good reason would not have been a smart thing to do. Instead, she was forced to make the change.

The 1976 Kitchen Fire and the Contract Conundrum

In 1976, just ten years after her launch, a fire started in the kitchen and destroyed the original restaurant, forcing Ruth Fertel to relocate. The problem was that she did not have the right to use the original Chris Steak House name.

She had to reopen right away. She had big bills to pay. As well, spending any time away from the public eye could be a disaster for the business. Where could she open a new restaurant? What could she call it?

She desperately went to the bank, hoping to come up with some ideas. It so happened that Fertel had purchased a building a few blocks down the street at 711 North Broad Street. The banker suggested she should just open the restaurant there.

Not a bad idea but how could she get it opened fast enough? It would need complete renovations, as it had only been meant for private parties and banquets. Legend has it that a contractor happened to be in the bank that day, and, overhearing the conversation, told her he could have it ready in a week, and he did.

A Weird Grammatical Decision That Stuck

Since the original sales agreement prevented her from using the name, she decided to simply tack her own name on, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House was born. So, now the name makes sense. The original steakhouse was Chris Steakhouse. The new steakhouse was Ruth’s Chris Steak House, i.e. the Chris Steak House owned by Ruth.

Not that the name caught on so well. While the business was successful, many people had trouble pronouncing its name, calling it Ruth’s Chrises or Chris’s Ruth. At least one gentleman called it the stupidest name he had ever heard. After he was convinced to enter the restaurant and tried the steak, though, the name didn’t bother him anymore. Fertel herself admitted to Fortune magazine that “I’ve always hated the name, but we’ve always managed to work around it.”

The 500-Degree Sizzle: Why Serve Steak on a Burning Plate?

Beyond the awkward double-possessive name, Ruth Fertel introduced a trademark service style that became synonymous with the brand. She delivered steaks to the table on ceramic plates heated to 500°F (260°C), bathed in a tablespoon of sizzling melted butter.

While high-end steakhouses traditionally avoid sizzling platters because excessive heat risks overcooking the steak via carryover cooking, Fertel’s background in chemistry and physics turned this into an asset.

The steaks are seared under proprietary 1,800°F infrared broilers. Transferring the meat to a scorching plate with bubbling butter ensures the cut reaches the dining room at peak temperature even if a runner is delayed during a slammed dinner service.

As the meat rests on the superheated ceramic, escaping meat juices mingle with the browning butter, creating a spontaneous pan sauce reduction right in front of the diner. There is also the added benefit of the spectacle. Just like a Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant’s fajita skillet, the loud hiss and pop of bubbling butter turns every delivered plate into an immediate auditory advertisement for surrounding tables. Yet unlike the theatrical illusion of the sizzling restaurant fajita, which kitchens often use to mask parcooked ingredients, the Ruth’s Chris method isn’t just empty dining-room theater. It solves real thermal problems and delivers a remarkably juicy, perfectly rested steak. It was an unconventional, high-risk operational choice that broke traditional restaurant rules, yet, much like the clunky name Fertel refused to abandon, it became the exact quirk that built an empire.