Closing may be on the menu at Ruby Tuesday

By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

March 28, 2008 05:11 am

— ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — Tuesday may be the end of Ruby Tuesday in Ashtabula Township.
Employees of the popular restaurant, located at the entrance of the Ashtabula Mall, 3315 N. Ridge E., say the restaurant is closing Monday. However, telephone calls to Ruby Tuesday’s corporate headquarters in Maryville, Tenn., did not bring a definite answer.
“We’re still evaluating the option,” said Sandy Stablein, Ruby Tuesday’s director of communications. “A decision has not been made or announced.”
Stablein also said Ruby Tuesday is nearing the end of its lease with the owner of the Ashtabula Mall, Cabot Investment Properties of Boston.
Chief executive officer of Cabot Properties Carlton Cabot was out of the office Thursday.
Meghann Gault, the mall’s senior marketing manager, had no comment on the news.
Joe Pete Sr., chairman of the Ashtabula Township trustees, said in reference to the closing of the restaurant: “It’s not a local problem; it’s a regional problem.”
Squeezed by skyrocketing food and fuel costs, as well as penny-pinching consumers who are not dining out as often, many restaurants are suffering these days, according to Pete.
“(Ruby Tuesday) is closing all of the company’s low-producing restaurants,” he said, including in Ashtabula.
However, few other restaurant chains have been hit as hard as Ruby Tuesday, whose same-store sales at company-owned stores fell 10.8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a USA Today report March 2.
“Unlike paying the mortgage, going out to eat is discretionary and can be changed easily,” Richard Johnson, senior vice president of the restaurant chain, said in the USA Today article.
People who have gift certificates to Ruby Tuesday can use them at the Ruby Tuesday at 9515 Diamond Center Drive, in Mentor, or at 700 Millcreek Mall, in Erie, Pa.