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chocolate praline encore. Now, as you sit back, satiated and content, a burning question lingers: what's the deal with this restaurant's name?” Anne Faircloth wrote of the tongue-twister of a name for Fortune Magazine in 1998. “’Ruth's Chris Steak House’ is so unwieldy that one restaurant critic suggested it would make a great so- briety test. If you can't say it three times, put down that martini.” After a fire destroyed the original Chris Steak House in 1976, Ruth planned to move the entire business to a larger space with more room down the street. Her contract, however, stipulated that the name “Chris

Steak House” could only be used in the exact, initial location. With only a week to come up with a solution—and not wanting to lose name recognition or her customer base—Fertel settled on “Ruth’s Chris Steak House” to combine familiarity with a not- so-subtle wink that a new generation of restaurateur—a woman—was in charge. "I've always hated the name," Fertel told Fortune . "But we've always managed to work around it…[and] make the steak the star." The differences in how Ruth operated her steakhouse were not limited to a new brand of exclusive, but familial, atmosphere: it was also in the food itself. The steaks quickly be-

came known for their signature sizzle (it’s practically impossible to imagine a perfectly medium-rare Ruth’s Chris ribeye crackling and popping in your ears and not salivate, Pavlov’s dog–style) as well as a litany of side dishes, like the aforementioned (and ever- popular) one-pound baked potato or deca- dent creamed spinach. She also elevated the conversation among customers and compet- itors about why selecting high-quality steaks mattered, making meat the very core of what brought the customers in for dinner and what kept bringing them back. “Early on, Mom realized that she needed to educate the marketplace. Quarter- and half-page print ads explained why only 2% of the beef raised in America was good enough for [her] customers,” writes Randy Fertel. “No less a personage than Arnie Morton, founder of Morton's Steak House, her chief competitor, once told me that 'Ruth Fertel created the prime steak business’— this despite the fact his father was selling steaks in the 1920s.” And as franchises spread, Fertel’s com- mitment to elevating her female employees, colleagues and confidantes was evident with each new dining room that opened across South Louisiana. “As the restaurants expanded in New Orleans, Mom promoted her waitresses and other female friends to run them. Ruth's college roommate Gloria, not her broth- er Sig, shared half-ownership in Chris II across the river in Gretna. Bette ran Vets on Veterans Highway in Fat City, a booming area of Metairie—until she was caught with her hand in her till. When Mom reopened four blocks up Broad and Orleans after the fire, Myrtle ran the restored original at Broad and Ursuline. Upon Myrtle's death, Doris took over until her hand, too, was caught in the till. She spent some years in the wilderness and then was forgiven. Ruth trusted her girls...[but] she kept a tight rein on bills, inventory and receipts.” Every Ruth’s Chris restaurant that popped up across the country—from the first fran- chise in Baton Rouge to Las Vegas and beyond—arrived with a dining room atmo- sphere that was decked out to reflect the unique location, whether catering to oil ty- coons in Houston or outdoorsy-types in the Rocky Mountains. Ruth knew that to help foster the intimacy, camaraderie and “club-

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