In 1965, a divorced mother raising two children on her own saw an advertisement for a business that was up for sale in New Orleans. Ruth Fertel mortgaged her house to buy Chris Steak House for $22,000 from its owner, Chris Matulich. Matulich had run the restaurant, located near the New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course on the border of the Bayou St. John and Treme neighborhoods, since the 1920s.