Since news has gotten out that Ruth’s Family Restaurant will be closing by the end of the year, it’s been especially busy.
On a mid-week afternoon, as one would scarcely be able to tell that the Martinez diner is winding down to close at its usual time, 2:30, as a slew of customers can still be found talking and laughing with staff and each other.
“We’ve made some dear friends,” said Dee Garland, who owns the renowned Washington Road eatery with her husband Peter, as she reminisced on its legacy, which includes years of watching families come and go, children being born and grow up.
The atmosphere is one for making friends, a key to its longevity, she said. A lone customer coming in for a bite might, sit at a hardtop table and find themselves, as they’re waiting for their order, gently goaded to sit with a stranger that will become their best friend.
“People make memories, here,” Garland said.
The late Ruth Goodbread first opened the diner in 1965. The Garlands bought it from her in 2011. Their memories aren’t restricted to the 13 years they’ve owned it.
“She would come in and have Sunday dinner with a group of her friends from her church, and they would always say, ‘Let’s go to your restaurant!’” Dee Garland said. “She was one of the kindest, most generous people that you could ever want to know.”
Regarding their tenure operating Ruth’s, Garland recalls it as an opportunity to minister, helping to feed those going through homelessness, or just a tough time.
The friendships and fellowships that have grown along the years at Ruth’s weren’t limited there, she said, with so many patrons growing close enough to be dinner guests at the Garlands’ home, or to join them on the occasions (usually on the weekends, when the diner’s closed and time permits) they go out to eat. All of these things, she said, will continue even after Ruth’s closes its doors.
The legacy of Ruth’s, Garland says, is its customers, and always has been.
“Those customers are Ruth’s Family Restaurant,” she said. “It truly is a family atmosphere. And people just feel it when they come in here.”
The beloved breakfast-and-lunch spot was hit hard both during and after the pandemic, as much as most businesses, she said, particularly with staffing. Running a restaurant is a tough business, Garland notes, and so the couple decided to retire.
The Garlands haven’t yet decided whether there will be a big send-off. One customer breaks down in tears talking about it, another asks for comfort, knowing no other place to get Dee’s now-famous potato leek soup.
They do, however, expect that last day to be another busy one. Their customers might give the proper send off for them.
Garland says she and her husband plan to do some RV’ing to recuperate, after the closing.
“We’ll miss it,” she said, recalling a recent conversation with her husband about how they’ll spend that first week after Ruth’s has closed.
“What are we going to do when we get up and we don’t have to make a 45-minute drive to work, and we realize it’s quiet… We’re not going to be talking to about 350 people today. What’re we going to do?” she said. “He said, ‘Ee’ll figure it out. We’ll figure out what to do.’”
Ruth’s Family Restaurant, located at 3843 Washington Rd., will be open at its usual hours, Tuesday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., until Dec. 30.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
