Ruby Tuesday has closed its freestanding restaurant on South Cobb Drive in Smyrna. The restaurant, located at 3197 South Cobb Drive between Concord Road and Church Street, had been in business for nearly 30 years. The Smyrna restaurant closed as of December 3 according to signage on the front door. Cobb County records indicate the restaurant opened in 1989.
According to the Cobb County Tax Assessor, "MORRISON INCORPORATED & DBA RUBY TUESDAY 2629" owns the Smyrna Ruby Tuesday restaurant. The 4,914 square foot restaurant sits on a roughly 1.2 acre parcel and is appraised by Cobb County at just over $1.2 million. The company, which was taken private in a $335 million transaction last fall, had assigned the Smyrna restaurant a "Go Dark Value" of $1.2 million when they made a 10-K filing last year as a public company.
In business since 1972, the Maryville, Tennessee-based chain has seen its popularity wane in recent years, from a store count of nearly 1,000 restaurants in 2007, down to about 500 today. Morrison Inc., the parent company of Morrison's Cafeterias, purchased then 15 unit Ruby Tuesday in 1982. Jonathan Maze with Restaurant Businessreported in October that the company operated 507 restaurants as of then, a store count he derived from restaurant listings on the company website. Ruby Tuesday refused to comment on his story and has not published a store count in months. Its most recent press release on its website is from over a year ago and indicates the company operates 599 restaurants.
ToNeTo Atlanta reported on the struggles of Ruby Tuesday in 2014. It, like other casual dining chains Applebee's, Shoney's and Chili's, have been slow to react to changing tastes and preferences and have seen their brands overlooked by millennial diners today.
The "newest" thing Ruby Tuesday did was to revamp something old when they debuted their new and improved "Garden Bar"last year.
In addition to the Smyrna restaurant closure, Ruby Tuesday has this year shuttered a number of other restaurants in Georgia including those in LaGrange, Newnan, Alpharetta and Conyers. The casual dining chain previously shuttered locations in Mall of Georgia in Buford, Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw, Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Northlake Mall in Tucker and on Lenox Road near Lenox Square in Buckhead. Ruby Tuesday also once had locations on West Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur, Acworth, Snellville, Cartersville and Griffin, among others.
The Ruby Tuesday website says "More than 500 locations and counting, find one near you" but while there are still about 20 or so restaurants in Georgia, the chain has not opened a new restaurant in over ten years, according to online resources.
Ruby Tuesday continues to operate restaurants on Delk Road in Marietta as well as in Lithonia, College Park, East Point (2), Loganville and Lithia Springs, among other communities in Georgia.
Are you surprised that Ruby Tuesday closed its Smyrna restaurant? Which is your favorite casual dining chain? What would you like to see open in place of the former Ruby Tuesday in Smyrna?
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