(The Dallas Examiner) – Ruthie’s Café serves quality, healthy comfort food in South Dallas. Now in a brick-and-mortar building, which opened in February by Lamar Hunt’s niece, Ashlee Kleinert and the Hunt family, it began as a food truck business in 2011. The café was named after Kleinert’s grandmother.
Dr. Terry Flowers, headmaster of St. Philip’s School and Community Center, has been pursuing creative ways to resurrect the South Dallas area. He convinced Kleinert to open a restaurant that served a nutritious breakfast and lunch.
“Knowing Dr. Flowers, he asked me if I would consider taking the food truck concept and turning it into a restaurant here on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the property that they own. So they are our landlord. We are their tenants,” Kleinert recalled. “And he said, ‘We need some additional food sources here. And there’s not a place for the teachers or community members to go sit and grab a cup of coffee, or you know, there’s not a Starbucks nearby where they can sit and do work or grab a healthy meal. There aren’t many options.’ And he asked if we would consider doing this. I did not ever set out to have a restaurant. It was never on my bingo card. But it’s hard to say no to him. And then once I learned more about what they’re trying to do in the community, it was a no-brainer. It’s like, let’s try. We’ve got the right people. We’ve got the right team. If they want it, let’s try to help and bring it…