The last day of business for the original Ruggles Green location, in the Persona Day Spa shopping center at 2311 West Alabama St. east of Kirby Dr. (above), was New Year’s Eve. But the restaurant claims it won’t be gone from the neighborhood for too long. A new Ruggles Green is scheduled to open up in the street-facing retail space on the ground floor of the Gables Upper Kirby apartments going up next door (portrayed above left), once construction on that project is finished. That’ll be this spring, a note on the Ruggles Green website promises. The new address, 2305 W. Alabama St., will be one door down from the former Mission Burrito, recently renamed Ãœberrito Mexican Grill to avoid tortilla torts.
Meanwhile, up in The Woodlands, a brand new Ruggles Green in the shopping center at 2501 Research Forest Dr. is scheduled to open any day now — “whenever the chairs arrive,” the company’s Facebook page declares. Here’s a pic of that standing-room-only (for now) location:
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Photos:Â Dung L. (Ruggles Green W. Alabama); Ruggles Green (The Woodlands). Rendering: Gables
Can anyone explain wtf is a Ruggle and why someone in Houston thinks it’s a good idea to keep naming mediocre restaurants after them?
This is how redevelop intelligently. Get neighboring businesses to move in, which keeps some commercial continuity while opening up the previous developments for the next stage.
@Zippy: “Ruggles” (pronounced ‘roog-lay’) is French for “yuppie chain restaurant.”
Someone should write a social history of the Ruggles restaurants in their various incarnations. They’ve been around for 30 years but each location is unique. Ruggles Green was my favorite by a long shot and even then it was a crap shoot what you’d get on any visit. Hope they aren’t closed for too long because despite my whining they had a good thing going in that concept.
Do any Ruggles still exist or did they all rebrand to Ruggles Green? It is pretty interesting how quickly these places change/move/rebrand while still being mediocre.
Rice Village still has a Ruggles: http://www.rugglescafebakery.com/. My kids like it, I do not.
And hey, there’s a new (?) one called Ruggles Black at Kirby & 59. Indian flavors? http://www.rugglesblack.com/ maybe worth a try.
Not sure which one is owned by him or her anymore. Looks like their other two Green versions are still in business (heights and city centre).
@Zippy,
If you plug “ruggles” into the Swamplot search box, you’ll get back tons of articles covering the downfall of the Ruggles empire. That’s a lot to read, so if you don’t want to do that, you can just read this Chron story that was linked in one of the SL stories. It pretty much tells the whole sordid tale.
http://www.chron.com/business/article/Restaurateur-gets-in-scrape-after-scrape-amid-2430701.php
Do you know if the Ruggles old place on Alabama and Revere has been leased out and is another eatery moving in?
We could use a coffee cafe!!!!!