GOODBYE, RUBY TUESDAY? “Not quite. The stock has rebounded to $6.54, and the company has raised money to pay down debt. Even if a sense of imminent doom has passed, however, nobody is yet calling Mr. Beall’s makeover a success.” I haven’t tried the new menu yet, but my complaint about the old one was that the food got more expensive, and more fattening, while tasting worse. (The turkey burger, for example, became an over-800-calorie monstrosity, but didn’t taste nearly as good as the older, lighter version). I guess I’ll have to check them out again — we used to go there once a week, but I haven’t been to a Ruby’s in many months.

But there’ll have to have been big changes to justify this bit:

“If you really care what you put in your body, Ruby’s is a good place for you,” says Mr. Beall, as the wait staff clears away the plates. “If you don’t care, hell, go to Hardee’s.”

Earlier posts on Ruby’s here and here.

UPDATE: Reader Billy Rawl emails:

We hardly ever eat lunch out, but today some friends persuaded us to join them at our local Ruby Tuesday. Although the place was crowded the service was impeccable, the food was wonderful, and none of the staff during our whole visit ever addressed us as “you guys.” I couldn’t think of a thing to suggest on the online survey that would improve my next visit. I would be returning even if I didn’t get $4 off my next entrée for filling out that online survey!

I’ll give ’em another try, maybe, although I looked at the nutrition information on their website and their turkey burgers are mostly in the 1100 calorie range. That’s two Big Macs worth of calories. For a turkey burger. You do better with a full slab of barbecue ribs. That’s just wrong. There’s one for 890 calories, which puts it just shy of the 920-calorie Double Whopper. Still pretty lame. Can’t we get a 500-calorie turkey burger?