Incoming Ruby Lu’s will be an open market, restaurant on Mt. Vernon square

By: 
Steve Chapman

Roxanne Bell and Chelle Walrath are teaming up to open Ruby Lu’s, a new restaurant on the Mt. Vernon city square. Together, with the help of their kitchen manager, Regina Stewart, they plan to open the restaurant in the building which formerly housed Martin’s Mt’neer Diner.
Bell said Ruby Lu’s will be more than just a restaurant.
“We are a different concept than just a restaurant,” she said. “We are a vendor market. We’ll have a restaurant that will specialize in fresh food. We’ll also have supplements like at a regular health food store.”
Bell said people will be able to buy “grab-n-go” meals as well as locally-produced foods, such as meat and eggs. Other merchandise will be available, as well. The restaurant will also deliver orders in the downtown area around the square.
The name of the restaurant, Ruby Lu’s, was inspired by a memory Bell has of her grandmother.
“When my grandmother started failing in health,” she said, “my siblings and I would go visit her, and she would get everybody’s name right except mine; she would call me Ruby Lu. We didn’t know who Ruby Lu was, and I finally asked my dad, and that was a cousin who had lived with them growing up. And, instead of being upset … it became a joke, and I became Ruby Lu as a nickname.”
Ruby Lu’s is slated to open Aug. 1, though Bell and Walrath hope to open it sooner. Hours are currently listed as: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and closed Sundays.
Bell and Walrath are currently seeking local vendors to sell items at Ruby Lu’s; anyone who is interested should call (417) 466-1115.
“We need vendors,” Walrath said. “Anybody that’s a local producer  we’d love to speak with them.”
 

Category:

Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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