Ruth's Chris • San Antonio, Texas

Ruth Fertel
Founder

Ruth Fertel is the Ruth behind the steak house, a company that pioneered an entirely new idea in the restaurant industry. It's a fine dining chain which grew to become the largest and most successful restaurant operation of its kind in the world. How did a single mother do it? Her success story was born on a hunch and a gamble.

Born in New Orleans in 1927, Fertel grew up during the Depression in the small South Louisiana fishing village of Happy Jack. After graduating from Louisiana State University at 19 with a Chemistry degree, Fertel taught at a Lake Charles junior college and then left to marry and raise a family. When her marriage ended in divorce she went to work as a lab technician at Tulane University in New Orleans. She found she couldn't earn enough money to put her two sons through college and began to look in the newspaper for other possibilities. She found an advertisement for a steak house for sale. Against the advice of her lawyer, banker, brother and best friend, Fertel mortgaged her home to buy the restaurant, then called Chris Steak House.

Her first day of business, May 24, 1965, Ruth sold 35 steaks for about $5 each. In the early days she did everything herself, from

butchering the beef to making drinks and washing dishes. In her first six months in business, she cleared more than she did in a year as a lab technician. As the popularity of her restaurant grew along with the line of customers waiting to get inside, Fertel decided to expand by opening another location. She eventually added her name to the Chris Steak House name.

On April 16, 2002, Ruth Fertel passed away. Hospitality is what Ms. Ruth stood for, and it remains her legacy. Her vision set the quality standard for prime-aged steak houses. Her friendship was a priceless gift. Her ability to turn something simple into a memorable experience defined standards. Ruth reached the pinnacle of the restaurant industry, achieving international success and receiving honors too numerous to mention. But it was friends she made along the way that Ms. Ruth considered her greatest reward. Ms. Ruth always said, "Do what you love and love what you do."