Be still my beating heart. The restaurant that taught me what fresh New England seafood is all about is coming to Atlanta – just around the corner from my office. Yes, Legal Sea Foods, that 50+ year-old institution begun by a nice Jewish family in Boston, is expanding to the A-T-L. Joining franchise locations in Florida and the D.C. area, the 9,000 square-foot restaurant will anchor the still-under-construction Hilton Garden Inn adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium – and no, whale shark nor beluga whale is expected to be in the menu. If I were one of the Alaskan King Crabs, I might be nervous however. I have such fond memories of going to the Chestnut Hill Legals when I was at Brandeis, from the ‘men only’ dinner my dad and I shared when he drove me to Waltham from Savannah for my freshman orientation week to the ‘impress the girlfriend’ dinner where my meager credit card limit had already been exceeded, resulting in a hasty sprint down to the mall to retrieve some cash from an ATM. I can already taste the steamers, chowder and yes, the belly-included fried clams. The only negative – opening is not expected until NEXT winter. I’ll be biding my time until then.
I just wrote a longer version of this comment before WordPress ate it (don’t forget to enter your email address!), but here’s the gist. I am excited about a new resaurant in the ‘hood, but am troubled by the name Legal Seafoods. Is it legal because it passed basic health and sanitation checks, as opposed to the illegal seafood served elsewhere?
And while we’re on the subject of troubling restaurant names, what is up with Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse? I’m going to open a place called Gertrude Jeremiah’s Burger Joint. What is up with the two names, and the possessive apostrophe between the two names? Somebody help me understand.
Hence their slogan – ‘if it’s not fresh it’s not legal.’ I think it’s probably also a nod to the founder’s parents wanting them to be lawyers. But anyway, there is a story about the Ruths Chris name. A friend of mine knew the family that owns/owned the chain. Per Wikipedia –
The chain was founded by the late Ruth Fertel, a single mother of two, in 1965, after she bought the existing Chris Steak House in New Orleans. In buying the restaurant, Fertel had to agree that the restaurant keep the “Chris” name for a specified period of time. After the original location sustained a kitchen fire, she relocated the restaurant about one-half mile (0.9 km) to the west on Broad Street and renamed the rebuilt establishment “Ruth’s Chris.” Under the purchase agreement, the name “Chris Steak House” could not be used at any other location, and she did not want to lose customers already familiar with the Chris name.[5] Fertel started to franchise the restaurant in the 1970s to locations throughout the United States and throughout the world.[6]