Ruth’s Chris Long Beach location set to open Aug. 1

Ruth’s Chris Long Beach location, the massive, high-end corporate steakhouse chain, will soon be opening come August 1.

It will be located at 180 E. Ocean Blvd., just slightly east of where Ocean meets Pine Avenue and kitty corner to Solita, the space taking over the former Rock Bottom space (which I will do a full feature on for the Downtown Long Beach Alliance in their upcoming newsletter).

Thrifty Oil Co., the owner of the 12-story tower that sits directly across from the historic Ocean Center building now under renovation as well, submitted their plans to update their building in November of 2019. 

While the rest of the building already has a different feel, the Ruth’s Chris aesthetic is prominent along the building’s first floor, facing north toward Ocean and wrapping around the building’s western edge to open up onto the Convention Center esplanade. 

While some may frown upon the corporatized restaurants moving in, calling for more local or smaller businesses to take over, the move marks a decidedly positive point for DTLB: When Rock Bottom had decided to close its doors at the northwest corner of Ocean and Pine and Federal Bar shuttered its windows just up the street—two of Long Beach’s largest restaurant spaces—signs were grim that investment would return.

On top of that return in investment, let’s just have a frank conversation: Now that conventions are slowly but steadily returning, we have an influx of new out-of-towners who might be seeking either brand recognition, high-end offerings they’re familiar with, or a sense of the grandiose—and Ruth’s Chris fills all three while Solita definitively offers something that, for those visiting, feels grandiose (think elote cut off the cob table side). 

The NOLA-based Ruth’s Chris did not start off as a chain: Ruth Fertel mortgaged her home in 1965 in order to buy what was then the Chris Steak House in New Orleans. Fighting against nearly all forms of patriarchy at the time, the single mother was a black sheep in terms of business—and through constant fighting, eventually built a name for the steak house.

Come 1976, the steak house suffered from a fire and she was forced to relocate but unable to take the name with her, hence the birthing of “Ruth’s Chris Steak House.”
Ruth’s Chris is located at 180 E. Ocean Blvd.