New Orleans-based Ruth’s Chris Steak House is opening a Toronto restaurant, where it hopes to corral enough beefeaters to justify further expansion in Canada.
Ruth’s Chris, which claims to be ‘the home of serious steaks,’ has 46 upscale restaurants in the u.s. market and internationally in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Cancun, Mexico and Taipei.
The success of this first Canadian restaurant will help determine whether the chain will roll out to other parts of the country, which has a fair number of local upscale steak houses but no strong national chain.
The Toronto Ruth’s Chris is scheduled to open this summer at the Downtown Hilton Hotel, in an area of the city that already supports about seven upscale steak houses.
That kind of concentration does not concern Ruth’s Chris manager Liz Hollyer, who expects the restaurant to thrive.
‘We’re anticipating that the market is good,’ Hollyer says. ‘If you speak to the steak restaurant owners in Toronto, they’ll tell you there’s never been a serious downturn.’
Her explaination is that people tend to go outside the home for steak dinners.
Hollyer added that there seems to be a trend away from the strict health-consciousness of the past, and people are reconsidering those foods that have been considered ‘forbidden.’
The Toronto restaurant is owned by St. Catharine’s, Ont. native Lana Duke, who owns another Ruth’s Chris Steak House in San Antonio, Tex.
Duke, president of Duke Unlimited Advertising in Metairie, La., will also co-ordinate advertising for her restaurant.
According to Hollyer, advertising for Ruth’s Chris restaurants tend to be concentrated in print, although radio and tv are used occassionally in some markets.
Advertising in the Toronto market will likely be limited to newspapers.
