Ruth Fertel

Ruth Ann Udstad Fertel (February 5, 1927 - April 16, 2002) was the founder of Ruth's Chris Steak Houses.

Early life and teaching

She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. During the Great Depression, she and her family moved to the community of Homeplace in Plaquemines Parish. She skipped several grades in grammar school, and later entered Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge at the age of fifteen to pursue degrees in chemistry and physics.

In 1946, Miss Udstad landed a job teaching at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. The majority of her students were football players who towered over her and were mostly older than she. The players were not a very well-mannered bunch, and Udstad resigned from McNeese after just two semesters.

On October 2, 1947, she married Rodney Fertel, who lived in Baton Rouge and shared her love of horses, and they had two sons, Jerry and Randy. In 1951, they opened a racing stable in Baton Rouge. Ruth earned a thoroughbred trainer’s license, making her the first female horse trainer in Louisiana. Ruth and Rodney divorced in 1958.

Ruth's Chris Steak House

Fertel then took a position as a lab technician at Tulane University Medical School for a few years. In 1965 she spotted an ad in the "New Orleans Times-Picayune" regarding a "Steak House for Sale." She mortgaged her house to purchase Chris Steak House, the little restaurant on the corner of Broad and Ursuline in New Orleans.

In September 1965, the city of New Orleans was ravaged by Hurricane Betsy just a few months after Fertel purchased Chris Steak House. The restaurant was left without power, so she cooked everything in the cooler and brought it to her brother in devastated Plaquemines Parish to aid in the relief effort. Coincidentally, Chris's steakhouse originally opened on the exact day of Fertel's birth.

In 1976, the by-then thriving restaurant was destroyed in a kitchen fire. Fertel bought a new property a few blocks away on Broad Street and soon opened under a new name, "Ruth’s Chris Steak House", since her original contract with former owner Chris Matulich precluded her from using the name Chris Steak House in a different location.

After years of failed attempts, Tom Moran, a regular customer and business owner from Baton Rouge, convinced a hesitant Fertel to let him open the first Ruth’s Chris franchise in 1976. It opened on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. Fertel reluctantly began awarding more and more franchises. In time, her Ruth’s Chris franchisees became part of her extended family.

In the 1980s, the little corner steak house grew into a global phenomenon with restaurants opening every year in cities around the nation and the world, including one as far away as Hong Kong. Fertel became something of an icon herself and was dubbed by her peers "The First Lady of American Restaurants".

Fertel died at age 75 after a long battle with cancer. She advertised on The Rush Limbaugh Show. Limbaugh pronounced her steaks the best that he had ever eaten.

Honors

Some of her awards include:
* 1992 – Regional Entrepreneur of the Year, "Inc. Magazine"
* 1995 – Entrepreneur of the Year, Horatio Alger Association
* 2001 – Ella Brennan Savoir Faire Award

References

External links

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