Adding a GTA sizzle to Ruth’s Chris steak
Marketing whiz expanding chain in Canada, tests younger market
Lana Duke is not terribly impressed.
A waitress serving tables at a Toronto hotel lobby lounge just mixed up the coffee order and needs to be flagged down for water.
“We’ll work on her; she’ll come around,” Duke says with a smile.
Of course, the Ruth’s Chris Steak House franchisee who brought the chain to Toronto 22 years ago and helped founder Ruth Fertel take it from one steak house in Louisiana to an international red meat powerhouse emphasizes that such an issue would never happen on her watch; the service at her high-end restaurants is expected to be top-notch.
“You don’t have to worry about hospitality with us or whether things look right. Consistency is one of our greatest assets,” says Duke, who has the sort of big personality befitting someone who has spent most of her life in New Orleans.
But the marketing whiz who became besties with Ruth Fertel (the original lady behind the internation- al steak house chain, who died in 2002) is actually a St. Catharines, Ont., native who moved to Louisiana when she was 18, but never forgets where she came from.
Clearly, Duke still thinks the Toronto area is a prime market for an upscale steak restaurant; building on the downtown location, she recently opened a new location on Dixon Rd. near the Toronto airport, along with plans for another in Markham by fall 2018.
However, competition isn’t nearly as rare as it was in 1995, when Ruth’s Chris opened at the Toronto Hilton to the delight of both business travellers and the financial district. In fact, the field was wide open among the few red meat players downtown, including Hy’s, Barberian’s and Bigliardi’s.
“When we first came here, people gave us a hard time for only offering USDA Prime instead of Alberta beef, and I was incredibly nervous,” recalls Duke, who had opened her first location in San Antonio a couple years prior.
At the time, Canadian farmers were given government subsidies to produce leaner meat, with the low fat and white-lean meat craze at their heights of popularity amid increasing rates of heart disease and obesity.
She explains that Ruth’s Chris stuck to its guns because of how flavourful the corn-fed marbled meat is, and that, after all, it’s a U.S. chain and corporate customers expected it — plus it’s a treat rather than an everyday meal.
“When they came into the market, it was the most novel thing,” notes Doug Fisher, president of food service consulting firm FHG International, who prepared her market research study for Toronto.
“Some of the older steak houses were tired by that point. She was the first Canadian woman coming in with (a fresh take on) the concept, and they really redefined what quality meat was,” he recalls. “They had fatter, richer, better-tasting meat — and that’s where the money was.”
Fisher says it’s “a little less distinguishable today” among numerous competitors, including Morton’s, STK, Harbour 60, Jacobs & Co. and Michael’s on Simcoe, all vying for the same customers. BlueBlood also recently opened in Casa Loma for red meat lovers with deep pockets, while the Keg (on the relatively lower end of the price spectrum but still considered good quality) has also expanded its presence in the GTA.
“People will go and try other places, but if you give people the best, they’ll always come back home,” Duke says, echoing one of her mentor Fretel’s mantras.
Though she says the steak remains the star — they still serve it sizzling hot on a 500 F plate with melted butter on top — even the 52-year-old chain is changing with the times in order to appeal to a growing younger market. It recently introduced a new bar menu with half-price appetizers from 5 to 7 p.m. and daily drink specials including Toonie Tuesday, when customers can get $2 sliders with a beverage purchase, or a pint of draught beer on Thirsty Thursdays for $4. They also now have a customer loyalty card, like so many other chains.
“People used to drink 10 drinks at the table. Now they like to come to the bar,” Duke notes.
“My target audience when I started was 90 per cent men. Now it’s easily 50-50,” she says, adding that the influx of women customers is also responsible for an emphasis on side dishes such as their popular lobster mac ’n’ cheese.
Duke now has three San Antonio locations. The opening of Ruth’s Chris at the Markham Marriott in 2018 will bring her total number of franchises to six. Her son, David, is co-franchisee and is more hands-on than his mom is now; she enjoys spending as much time as she can with her two grandchildren.
“Ruth was a mentor to him. He was raised on the sizzle,” she jokes. “But I can’t back off completely. It’s my baby.”
She says regardless of trends, the worst time for her steak house business in Canada by far was during the SARS outbreak in Toronto in 2003 — the same year she opened her second Canadian Ruth’s Chris in Mississauga at Square One. (That location closed earlier in 2017 as the lease was set to expire and they wanted to tap into the higher traffic near the airport at a location they “built from scratch” beside another Hilton.)
“Every convention in the area was cancelled for three years, and I spent a fortune in radio advertising,” she says.
Though Duke is well known for her classic “Come hungry darlin’ ” radio spots (in fact, she trademarked the expression), it’s still the odd name of the steak house that people ask about most.
In 1965, Ruth Fertel mortgaged her house for $22,000 (U.S.) to raise the funds to buy a 60-seat restaurant for sale in New Orleans called the Chris Steak House. Despite having no experience in the restaurant business, the single mom managed to make a go of it and attracted a loyal following for her thick, juicy steaks and her warm, welcoming southern charm.
But a fire in 1976 forced her to move to a new location nearby. Since she didn’t have the legal right to the original name, she added her name to the new spot, thus making it Ruth’s Chris — a name she said she hated “but I worked around it” in interviews before her death at age 75 of lung cancer.
Duke got to know the diminutive firebrand well in the 1970s.
“It’s a tough world for women in business, and was especially in those days,” Fisher notes.
But they were determined to make it work in a man’s world.
“Ruth was a hard-charging, chainsmoking, gregarious woman who was very customer-focused . . . and she (Duke) is hard-working, focused and certainly a dedicated franchisee,” he adds.
Duke said the worst time for the company in the U.S. was the recession in 2008-2009, when the stock went from $23 to 99 cents. The savvy businesswoman said she seized the opportunity and wisely bought more stock, which now trades again in the $20 range.
“I arrived in New Orleans with one suitcase,” Duke says over a cappuccino, adding: “It’s been a journey.”