Ruby’s Diner is a

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

-based

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

chain of

casual dining Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...

restaurants founded in 1982. The original location was a converted bait shack at the end of

Balboa Pier The Balboa Pier is one of two piers in the city of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. The other ocean pier on the Balboa Peninsula is the Newport Pier. The Balboa Pier was constructed in 1906 as a sister project of the Balboa Pavilion. The ...

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...

. The restaurants are designed with a

retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from history, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. In popular culture, the "nostalgia cycle" is typically for the two decades that begin 20–30 ...

1940s File:1940s decade montage.png, Above title bar: events during World War II (1939–1945): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching Omaha Beach on D-Day; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holoca ...

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

atmosphere. As of 2024, most locations are in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, but there are also locations in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

and in the Las Vegas airport.

History

The first Ruby's Diner opened on December 7, 1982, in a converted bait shop at the end of the

, California. On that day, founders Doug Cavanaugh and Ralph Kosmides worked the grill and the cashier station and earned a total of $63. The restaurant was named after Cavanaugh's mother, and her likeness appears in the logo and other advertising material; a copy of her high school graduation photo is placed next to the register in every location."Ruby Cavanaugh, namesake of Ruby's Diner, dies at 93"
Orange County Register, December 29, 2015 The original Ruby's diner location still stands at the end of Balboa Pier. The restaurant formerly operated further pier locations in

Huntington Beach Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 during the 2020 census, maki ...

, Malibu, Oceanside, and

Seal Beach Seal Beach is a coastal city in Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,242, up from 24,168 at the 2010 census. Seal Beach is located in the westernmost corner of Orange County. To the northwest ...

, but these locations have since been closed. In the 2010s, Ruby's experimented with converting some locations, including

Costa Mesa Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge of t ...

, to a

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 ...

1960s File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong and Buzz ...

Googie Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in the U ...

theme called "Ruby's Dinette", a change that included ordering at the counter rather than at the table. The experiment was dubbed a failure, and the locations were converted back to the original format. Ruby's filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in 2018, and a franchisee provided a cash infusion. Cavanaugh and Kosmides were sued in 2021 by a bankruptcy court trustee, who accused the pair of loaning themselves money from Ruby's and using Ruby's personnel while pursuing other business ventures.

Similar restaurants

A similar chain, Holly's Diner, opened in

Tours, France Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metrop ...

in 2014 and presently has 24 locations throughout France.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.rubys.com 1982 establishments in California Companies based in Irvine, California Hamburger restaurants in the United States Restaurant chains in the United States Restaurant franchises Restaurants established in 1982 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018

History

Similar restaurants

See also

References

External links