Ruby D’s downtown vegan burger and junk food joint has been cleaning up in TulsaPeople’s annual A-List Readers’ Choice Awards the past couple years, and it’s easy to see why. With a menu chock-full of cheesy, saucy, dunk-ably decadent options, the plant-based establishment fills a much-needed hole in Tulsa’s restaurant landscape.
Owners Fernando and Kortnie Martinez are seasoned professionals when it comes to executing popular foodie concepts around town. Prior to opening Ruby D’s, the couple spent three years operating popular Cajun food truck The Bayou.
“We were pretty much living a food trucker’s dream,” Kortnie says.
But behind that success, the long hours and intense heat of food-truck life were taking a toll. Kortnie had been vegetarian since childhood, while Fernando began removing meat and dairy from his diet because eating lighter helped him feel better in the heat. As the couple learned more about plant-based living, they became increasingly uncomfortable serving animal products…