The Story of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse Founder Ruth Fertel
A petite single mother who got a chemistry degree at 19. So, who was the eponymous Ruth of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse? She was a child genius who got a chemistry degree at 19. She was a single mother who raised two boys on her own. She was a petite, 5-foot-2, 110-pound woman who cut 30-pound loins into steaks with a bone saw. And she always hated the “Chris” in Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Ruth Udstad grew up in Happy Jack, a small unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, 20 miles from New Orleans. At 15, she graduated from high school. At 19, she graduated with honors from Louisiana State University with a degree in chemistry. One day she saw an ad in the classifieds for an unnamed restaurant for sale. She matched the phone number on the ad to the phone number listed in the Yellow Pages for Chris Steak House. She saw that the restaurant had been founded on her birthday, February 2, 1927. With no experience working in a restaurant, Fertel decided to buy the steakhouse.
How to Negotiate Rent
For your small business during COVID-19. With little-to-no revenue coming in the door, it’s difficult to pay your heftiest bill on time month after month. And it’s only getting more challenging. Every day, local businesses are contending with stay-at-home orders, and mandated closures make it harder and harder to make rent. And most cannot afford to wait much longer for small business loans to save the day, or for things to return to “business as usual”. Fortunately, your rent might not be completely set in stone. With record numbers of unemployment claims, loan defaults, and small business bankruptcies, now is the perfect time to open up negotiations with your landlord. You need office space, and your landlords rely on you to stay in business. COVID-19 is reducing their potential tenant candidate pool, meaning they’ll likely have more wiggle room to keep you as an occupant.
The Restaurants Transforming
Into grocery stores. Among my most treasured possessions right now is an imposingly large plastic jug containing five liters of olive oil from Spain. I got it at Hart’s, a restaurant in Bed-Stuy. On a recent Sunday, in a misty rain, I stood in an exceptionally calm line of people (all masked, some gloved, all spaced at least six feet apart) waiting to approach a table just inside the doorway. Behind it, Hart’s three proprietors, Nialls Fallon, Leah Campbell, and Nick Perkins—who also own and operate the Fly, a few blocks away, and Cervo’s, on the Lower East Side—were filling bags and boxes with olive oil; produce, eggs, and meat (including freshly killed, dry-brined chickens, ready to be roasted) from local farms; tinned seafood; and bottles of wine and liquor.
Why Didn’t Tourist Capital Orlando
Have more coronavirus cases? Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando attract millions of people from across the globe to make the city the nation’s most visited. The city’s international airport is among the nation’s busiest. And hundreds of thousands of employees at theme parks, hotels, shops and restaurants spend their work days in close contact with travelers and then return to their homes in suburbs sprawled across Central Florida, potentially transmitting the contagion throughout their communities. Today, more than nine weeks since the first show canceled at the Orange County Convention Center because of the then-building pandemic, Orange County is better off than every other major population center in Florida, according to health metrics tracked by the state.
Did You Know?
Gov. Murphy signing an executive order to create the Governor’s Restart and Advisory Council. At today’s COVID-19 press briefing, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that he is signing an executive order to create the Governor’s Restart and Advisory Council, which will work in conjunction with the Restart and Recovery Commission announced last week. NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka will serve on the Main Street committee, as part of the advisory council. The council will bring together leaders from various industries and communities across New Jersey to aid the reopening of the state’s economy. “If you think of the Restart and Recovery Commission as the strategy, then the Restart and Advisory Council will be the actual tactics,” Murphy said. “This is where the various voices of those on the ground in our small businesses, communities of faith, educational communities and more, will come together to advise us on the issues from the very specific and local levels. Murphy described the advisory council as a “boots on the ground, real world approach to how we move forward.”
Employee Tip
9 Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make During Reopening. Some states are already starting to reopen, and some plan to lift lockdown orders in the near future. However, this doesn’t mean it’s safe to go back to how life was before. Even as the country starts to emerge from quarantine, many of the safety precautions we’ve been employing the last few months need to remain in practice in order to avoid a dangerous second wave of the coronavirus. To help you stay safe, here are the mistakes you should avoid when out in public after reopening. And for more ways to stay healthy after lockdown.
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Daily Alerts
Waterfront Ocean County, NJ Restaurant-Bar-Catering Facility. Spectacular 865-foot panoramic water view; 350 seats + two bars inside; 6,150 square foot outdoor deck with large covered bars, outdoor seating for 150, kitchen and stage; 23 boat slips; one-of-a-kind setting; panoramic water view; financing to qualified. Further details call 732-531-4200.
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New restaurant industry survey. Bielat Santore & Company is conducting an online survey of restaurant owners and operators throughout the NY-NJ-PA metropolitan area, inquiring about the challenges the industry is facing during COVID-19 pandemic.
The firm will donate $1 dollar for every valid survey response it receives to the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC). The Independent Restaurant Coalition was formed to save the local restaurants affected by COVID-19. “Our firm is committed to working with the active community of restaurateurs and hospitality operators, many of whom are our clients, to help with the rescue and reopening of their industry,” states Richard Santore, Partner in Bielat Santore & Company.
You can find the survey on the company’s website at www.123bsc.com/news/ and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/123BSC/. In addition to the company’s monetary donation, if enough survey responses are received, Bielat Santore & Company will publish a comprehensive report compiling the results of the survey for distribution.
A voice for our industry. If you are finding these daily bulletins informative and beneficial during this pandemic, we kindly ask that you write a brief Google review providing a vote of your appreciation. Simply Google “Bielat Santore & Company” and when the company name appears click the button on the right to write your review or; if you don’t use Gmail, go to Google Maps, type “Bielat Santore & Company” – Allenhurst, NJ into Google Maps; scroll down and you will see an option to leave a review.
Thank you and remember all of the “Restaurant Industry Alerts” and “Thursday Restaurant Rap” interviews can be found at www.123bsc.com/news/. We intend to continue to keep you informed as we all look for an end to this crisis.
