Luby's, Inc. (formerly Luby's Cafeterias, Inc.) is a parent company that operates the Luby's chain of cafeteria-style restaurants. In the past, Luby's Inc. also owned the

Fuddruckers Fuddruckers (sometimes abbreviated Fudds) is an American fast casual, franchised restaurant chain that specializes in hamburgers. The Fuddruckers concept is to offer large hamburgers in which the meat is ground on-site and buns are baked on the ...

Koo Koo Roo Koo Koo Roo was an American fast casual restaurant chain specializing in charbroiled chicken founded in 1988 by Los Angeles-based restaurateurs Mike and Ray Badalian. The name "Koo Koo Roo" was an onomatopoeic reference to the crow of a rooste ...

, and

Cheeseburger in Paradise "Cheeseburger in Paradise" is a song written and performed by American popular music singer Jimmy Buffett. It appeared on his 1978 album ''Son of a Son of a Sailor'' and was released as a single, reaching No. 32 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. " ...

restaurant chains. As of July 2022 there are 42 locations in Texas. Its headquarters is in the Near Northwest district of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The original location was founded in 1947 in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

by Robert Luby (1910–1998). Luby's Culinary Services provides contract food service management to eighteen healthcare, higher education, and corporate dining locations, such as

Texas Children's Hospital Texas Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked, freestanding 973-bed, acute care women's and children's hospital located in Houston, Texas. It is the primary pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is located wit ...

Lone Star College Lone Star College (LSC) is a public community college system serving the northern portions of the Greater Houston, Texas, area. In 2017 it enrolled about 95,000 students. The headquarters of the Lone Star College System are located in The Wood ...

, and formerly,

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

, which ended its relationship with Luby's in March 2015.

History

Bob Luby was one year old when his father, Harry, opened his first cafeteria called the New England Dairy Lunch. Bob opened his first Luby's Cafeteria in 1947, focusing on fresh food and

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...

. Luby's soon expanded outside of San Antonio to

Tyler Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

, Harlingen,

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

, and

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

. In 1959, the original partners formed Cafeterias, Inc. Luby's continued to expand, entering other Texas cities and locations in contiguous states. Luby's entered

for the first time when it opened Romana Cafeteria in 1965. Locations opened in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

in 1966 and in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

in 1980. In 1973, Cafeterias, Inc., became a

publicly traded company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...

. To honor Bob Luby, Cafeterias, Inc., was renamed Luby's Cafeterias, Inc., in 1981. One year later, Luby's shares were listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

. By 1987 Luby's had reached 100 locations. The company operated in 11 states in 1996, having over 200 restaurants at that time. In 2001, Chris and Harris

Pappas Pappas or Papas ( el, Παππάς, ) is a Greek surname, which means "priest" (occupational surname). In the United States, it is often a shortened form of a longer surname like ''Papadopoulos'' or ''Papageorgiou''.Louis Adamic, ''What's Your Name ...

of Houston's

Pappas Restaurants Pappas Restaurants, Inc. or simply Pappas Restaurants is a Privately held company, privately held restaurant chain, headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its brands include Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Pappas Seafood, Pappas Bar-B-Q, Pappas Burger, Pap ...

(owners of Pappasito's Cantina, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, etc.) joined the Luby's management team. Three years later, Luby's moved its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Houston. The addition of the Pappas management team saw several Luby's restaurants begin to transition from traditional cafeteria-style establishments to hybrid cafeteria/fine dining. Luby's celebrated its 60th anniversary in December 2006 with publishing “Luby’s Recipes & Memories: A Collection of our Favorite Dishes and Heartwarming Stories". In 2008, Luby's published a special edition of the cookbook that included 12 additional recipes. In 2009, due to the economic recession, Luby's closed 25 stores and laid off staff as a cost-cutting measure. In 2010 Luby's Culinary Services introduced "What's Brewing?", a coffeehouse concept store in

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...

. The same year, on June 18, Luby's announced it was buying

an
Koo Koo Roo
for $61 million after parent company Magic Brands LLC went bankrupt. On June 13, 2011, Luby's opened its first company-owned Fuddruckers restaurant in downtown Houston's seven-mile (11 km) tunnel system. In 2013, Luby's acquired

. There were 93 Luby's in August 2015, and this declined to 78 in 2019. Technomic consumer insights senior manager Robert Byrne stated that the

fast casual A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States and Canada, does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is an intermediate concep ...

restaurants reduced Luby's market share. During the 2020

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic, Luby's Inc furloughed more than half of its corporate staff and cut the pay of remaining salaried employees by 50 percent. Luby's Inc also applied for and received a loan of US$10 million as part of the

Paycheck Protection Program The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $953-billion business loan program established by the United States federal government during the Donald Trump administration in 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES A ...

Sale of Fuddruckers and acquisition by Calvin Gin

On June 3, 2020, Luby's Board of Directors announced plans to sell all its operating divisions and assets, including real estate assets. This decision was influenced in part by circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Net proceeds from transactions will benefit Luby's stockholders. The company did not have a definitive timeline for future transactions, but expected to eventually wind down remaining operations. On September 8, 2020, Luby's further announced it has adopted a plan to

liquidate Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign coun ...

all of its existing assets, as opposed to operating in the current form or merely selling off divisions. As of September 11, 2020, there were 80 Luby's and Fuddruckers still in operation. 99% of Luby's stockholders voted for dissolution in November 2020. On June 21, 2021, Calvin Gin, founder of Flying Food Group, agreed to buy 32 Luby's locations for $28.7 million, a week after Nicholas Perkins of North Carolina agreed to buy Luby's Fuddruckers brand for $18.5 million. Prior to the announcement of Gin's acquisition, Luby's had planned to close all locations by August 2021.

Headquarters

Luby's has its headquarters in Suite 600 of the 13111

Northwest Freeway The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east ...

building in the Near Northwest district and in

. In July 2004, Luby's announced that it would move its headquarters from

to Houston, where

has its headquarters. At that time Luby's did not yet state to where it would be moving; the company stated that it would most likely move to a suburb in

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Co ...

. 80 jobs were transferred to Houston.

In media

The "Lu Ann Platter", a popular combination platter served at Luby's, is a half portion main dish with vegetables. This plate was the inspiration for the character name

Luanne Platter ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. The main characters are Hank Hill, Peggy Hill, Bobby Hill, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, Jeff Boomhauer, Luanne Platter, Nancy Gribble, Joseph Gribble ...

from the animated Texas comedy/drama, ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...

''. The cafeteria itself is characterized as "Luly's" on the show.

References

;Notes

History

Sale of Fuddruckers and acquisition by Calvin Gin

Headquarters

In media

References

External links