Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday was born out of a $10,000 endowment Sandy Beall had received from a friend and operator of several Pizza Huts to open his own restaurant. Beall took the name from The Rolling Stones song "Ruby Tuesday", after a suggestion by one of several fraternity brothers who were co-investors. With that money, and another $10,000 put together with four of his University of Tennessee fraternity brothers, the first Ruby Tuesday restaurant was opened in 1972. The location was adjacent to the university's Knoxville campus, and although the building still stands, the restaurant has since closed.

Over the next decade, a new location opened about every nine months. In April 1982, Beall sold the expanded 16-unit Ruby Tuesday chain to Morrison Inc. for $15 million in cash and stock. The sale provided the rapidly growing restaurant chain with additional financial support. It also saw Sandy Beall become president of a newly formed Specialty Restaurant Division spearheaded by Ruby Tuesday. By 1985, the chain had grown to operate 35 locations and was a significant contributor to the renewed success of Morrison's.

Morrison Inc. was renamed Morrison Restaurants Inc. in 1992 to reflect the importance of its restaurant investments. Additionally, the company realigned its dining division with a new name, the Ruby Tuesday Group. That same year, Beall was named CEO of Morrison Restaurants Inc. On March 9, 1996, the shareholders of Morrison's approved distribution and dissolved Morrison Restaurants Inc. into three separate companies: Ruby Tuesday Inc., Morrison Health Care Inc., and Morrison's Fresh Cooking Inc.

Ruby Tuesday Inc. became the legal successor to Morrison Restaurants Inc. and was incorporated in Mobile, Alabama. At the time of the distribution, Ruby Tuesday Inc. operated many other restaurant brands in addition to their flagship Ruby Tuesday brand, including L&N Seafood Grill, Mozzarella's Café, Silver Spoon Café, and Tia's Tex-Mex. In November 2000, Ruby Tuesday Inc. completed the sale of all restaurant brands (except Ruby Tuesday) to Specialty Restaurant Group, LLC. This divestiture allowed Ruby Tuesday to concentrate exclusively on the growth and development of its namesake brand. On April 12, 2007, Ruby Tuesday Inc. changed its NYSE ticker symbol from RI to RT.

On October 7, 2020, Ruby Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.

Restaurant themes

In August 2007, Ruby Tuesday Inc. ventured back into other concepts with their newly acquired Asian dining restaurant, Wok Hay. The company proceeded to convert the concept from self-service to full-service dining. In October 2008, a second location was opened in a former Ruby Tuesday restaurant building. The company's 2011 Annual Report noted an additional franchised Wok Hay restaurant in Trinidad, bringing the emerging chain to three operating restaurants.

In September 2010, Ruby Tuesday Inc. continued its venture into other concepts with an agreement to license the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill brand. Earlier the same year, Ruby Tuesday also acquired the development rights to Truffles Grill and introduced their home-grown Marlin & Ray's Seafood & Sunsets concept. As of 2011, the company was researching conversion of poorly performing Ruby Tuesday restaurants into some of these concepts. An excerpt from the 2011 Annual Report:

As of May 31, 2011, we owned and operated one Marlin & Ray’s, one Truffles, and two Wok Hay restaurants. We are currently evaluating the conversion of certain lower performing Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants to these concepts. We currently anticipate converting approximately six to eight company-owned Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants to the Marlin & Ray’s, Truffles, or Wok Hay concepts in fiscal 2012. Additionally, we anticipate opening one to two new restaurants and approximately seven to nine smaller, inline Lime restaurants in the fiscal year 2012.

Marketing

For much of its history, Ruby Tuesday had little, if any, advertising. By 2002, the company found itself combating traffic and sales losses at many of its locations. This caused the company to change course and introduce coupons at selected sites. By June of the following year, Ruby Tuesday had expanded on this strategy by testing television, radio, and billboard advertising in select locations. The company also began offering a curbside carryout service originally dubbed "TueGo!"

New identity

In 2007, the company began a series of significant changes to its brand identity. The changes were made to move the brand's customer perception out of the "bar-and-grill" segment of the casual dining industry, and were showcased in the opening of their Times Square location the same year. As part of the changes, Pentagram design studios were hired to help construct a new public visual identity for the brand. The design team created a new logo set in Clarendon, altered the standard color scheme, and created all new packaging to promote the renamed "Ruby TueGo" carryout service. Ruby Tuesday also began remodeling its entire suite of restaurants via the removal of their novelty wall artifacts, faux Tiffany lamps, and dated furnishings. The update went on to bring a new menu with higher-quality food and beverages, revamped service techniques, high-definition televisions, and a free guest-accessible Wi-Fi network.

"Implosion"

In 2008, Ruby Tuesday marketed an advertising campaign to show how radical their recent changes were. On August 5, over "live" streaming internet video, a demolition crew was supposed to implode the final "old Ruby Tuesday" to cap off the brand's commitment of change in front of a small crowd in Mount Holly, Ohio. However, to the crowd's shock, the "restaurant" next door (Cheeky's Bar and Grill, which looked like a typical casual dining chain) was demolished.

Following the events, the senior VP of marketing for Ruby Tuesday (in actuality, an actor) posted a written apology on the company's website and videotaped a formal apology that was broadcast on television. As it turned out, the idea was merely an elaborate marketing ploy to raise attention to the newly remodeled restaurants. The implosion was actually done on a miniature set staffed by a Hollywood special effects crew, and the "live" event had been pre-recorded in Harriman, Tennessee. The two films were then edited together to make it look like an accident.