Ruby Tuesday: So Good
April 10, 2021
How did the restaurant get a name like Ruby Tuesday? Well, just as you probably guessed, it comes from the Rolling Stones song, Ruby Tuesday. And, guess, who suggested said name? The great Bob Hope!
Sandy E. Beall was a finance major at the University of Tenessee and, along with a friend and partner, he managed a number of Pizza Hut restaurants. Sadly, his partner was dying, but gave Beally $10,000 to open a new restaurant. So, along with another $10,000 from four of his university fraternity brothers, Beall opened his first Ruby Tuesday restaurant in 1972 adjacent to the University’s Knoxville campus.
By 1982, Beall had a chain of 16 Ruby Tuesdays which he sold to Morrison Inc. for $15 million in cash and stock. Sandy Beall became president of a newly formed Specialty Restaurant Division led by Ruby Tuesday. By 1985, the chain had grown to 35 locations.
In 1992, Morrison Inc. was renamed Morrison Restaurants Inc. and their dining division was renamed to the Ruby Tuesday Group. That same year, Beall was named CEO of Morrison Restaurants Inc.
On March 9, 1996, the shareholders of Morrison’s dissolved Morrison Restaurants Inc. and created three separate companies: Ruby Tuesday Inc., Morrison Health Care Inc., and Morrison’s Fresh Cooking Inc.
In 1997, the company purchased a residential property at nearby Maryville College and developed it into a corporate retreat and training centre. They named it Ruby Tuesday (RT) Lodge.
In addition to their flagship Ruby Tuesday, the company also operated L&N Seafood Grill, Mozzarella’s Café, Silver Spoon Café and Tia’s Tex Mex.
In November 2000, Ruby Tuesday Inc. had sold all restaurant brands except Ruby Tuesday to Specialty Restaurant Group, LLC. The divestment provided the company the opportunity to focus solely on the growth and development of the Ruby Tuesday brand.
In September 2010, Ruby Tuesday Inc. licensed the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill brand and acquired the development rights to Truffles Grill. That same year, they introduced the Marlin & Ray’s Seafood & Sunsets concept.
In 2012, Ruby Tuesday Inc. purchased the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill chain for $24 million cash. John Kunkel, Lime’s founder, joined the Board of Directors following the completion of the acquisition.
On December 21, 2017, Ruby Tuesday was purchased by NRD Capital Management, a private equity firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, for the sum of $146 million.
In 2014, Ruby Tuesday changed employees’ uniforms to blue jeans and brightly coloured shirts. The internal music system played the current top 100 songs and the Ruby Tuesday logo was updated to a modern font. In 2015 they updated their kids’ menu to include cheese pizza and corn dogs, served with colourful plastic cups and twisty straws.
Kids Eat Free Tuesdays: every kid who is accompanied by an adult eats absolutely free on Tuesdays.
Gloria Sauvé
Communications and Marketing