Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published November 23, 2005 Click here for the current edition Ruth's Chris Returns December 5 Friday, I had a long conversation with Craig Miller, the chief executive officer of Ruth's Chris Steak House. They'd written to tell me of the re-opening of the Metairie Ruth's Chris on December 5. But what everybody wants to know is whether the Ruth's Chris on Broad Street will be back, and I wanted to get the story from the boss. "We don't know yet about Broad Street," Miller says. "We're still waiting on the results from tests about whether that building can be safely rebuilt and used for food service." There is no question about how badly the Ruth's on Broad got hit by the storm: it stood in six feet for water for many days. But if the original building isn't usable, will it be torn down and rebuilt on that site? "There are other problems," Miller told me. "One of them is insurance. We have not been able to locate anyone who will insure the Broad Street location.  Maybe that will change, but this is a public company. I can't tell my stockholders that we have an uninsured building that might be destroyed in another storm at a cost of three million dollars." He had another rationale. "Ralph Giardina, the former president of the company with Ruth, told me that they always talked about moving the Broad Street restaurant somewhere else," Miller said. "In fact this isn't the original Ruth's Chris anyway. They moved here after a fire at the original location, because Ruth owned the building. If we can't use this building, it may be the time to move it downtown or into the French Quarter. We want to have a Ruth's Chris in New Orleans somewhere." But Ruth's Chris on Broad Street is a holy place to many Orleanians, most of whom don't remember the original on Broad at Ursulines. It's the "real" Ruth's Chris. And they will likely create a backlash if the corporation that now owns Ruth's Chris doesn't reopen there. It was clear to me that Miller doesn't full understand the depth of this feeling, although he wasn't entirely ignorant of it, either. "I can understand that people were upset when we moved the headquarters out. But we had no choice. We have ninety restaurants worldwide, and we couldn't function here. For one thing, we couldn't get people in and out of New Orleans after the storm, because of the problems at the airport. I'm sorry about that, but it had to be done." Ruth's Chris on Veterans reopens for dinner at first, seven nights a week, beginning Monday, December 5. Lunch will come later. They also said they will have a kiosk outside selling Ruth's Chris gift certificates. It will be interesting to see to what extent New Orleanians will forgive a perceived slight by its leading steakhouse. (And just about the only one, when it opens.) And what will happen to the Broad Street location. "That's a question we can't answer right now," said Miller. © 2005 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com