It has not escaped ELV’s attention that the ladies who seat our middle-aged keister on a nightly basis are some of the most attractive gals in Sin City. Therefore, with this post do we begin a series entitled: Hot Hostess Watch, featuring the fine fillies that fillagree the fronts of our finest festals.

And in posthumous honor of the hostess who made it all possible, we hereby feature none other than Ruth Fertel, the founder and first hostess of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse (in New Orleans), who started the gourmet stampede to the High Mojave Desert in 1989, when she, along with Marcel Taylor, took the radical step of bringing a nationally known, upscale franchise to a town that knew but three kinds of restaurants: buffets, coffee shops, and “gourmet” rooms.

As Taylor tells the story, he met Mrs. Fertel during one of her many gambling forays to Vegas. He (as a dealer at Caesars) knew the convention business here was about to boom, and that the hotels were ill-equipped to handle the demand. But the Board of Directors of Ruth’s Chris (who were running over 20 restaurants at the time) thought no one in Vegas ever left their hotel to eat. In other words, they thought Fertel and Taylor were crazy. Needless to say, Fertel won the argument. Within a year of opening, the Ruth’s Chris on Paradise Rd. was the highest grossing restaurant in the entire chain. It didn’t take long for its wholesale purveyors to notice how much inventory was being moved in this single Vegas outpost. Word quickly spread among them –  and nationwide – and the rest is history.

Ruth Fertel, even though you have departed this mortal vale, ELV honors you as its first Hot Hostess!