FAMILY MEALS WITHOUT THE FUSS
If you happen by Ruby J’s Café when the world feels a little cold, you’ll warm up quickly. The food, the staff, the service and the atmosphere just make life seem easier. All you have to do is relax and enjoy.
Eric and Deborah Brown opened the café at 4734 W. Lisbon Ave. in January after renovating the stately brick building in the center of Uptown. They purchased the building because it had all the right ingredients — a convenient location, a restaurant history and space for independent businesses upstairs. The couple already had experience refurbishing their commercial building at 3658-3660 N. Teutonia Ave.
“We liked the floor plan, it had good bones and the price was right,” Eric said about the Lisbon Avenue building. “With a lot of help, we transformed it.”
New brick, tile and awnings completed the exterior work, and the dining room, kitchen and bathroom were redone. The building now accommodates the café and 11 business suites, which are rented to local entrepreneurs.
The café, named for Deborah’s mother, Ruby Jamison, was a natural fit.
“Now we have a nice family-style restaurant that’s designed for everybody to come in and enjoy a good dining experience,” says restaurant owner Eric Brown.
“I told my wife she cooked so good we needed to open a restaurant,” Eric said. “Now we have a nice family-style restaurant that’s designed for everybody to come in and enjoy a good dining experience.”
The café offers delicious American dishes and familiar Jamison-Brown family favorites, too. The affordable menu includes Southern food, fried chicken and wings, burgers, brats, Polish sausage, catfish, perch, Friday fish fry, meatloaf, roast beef, mac and cheese, lots of side choices, hearty mix-and-match breakfast fare, and specialties including Deborah’s luscious banana pudding with strawberries.
The coffee is freshly brewed, flavorful, piping hot and refilled at just the right time with a warm smile. Take-out is available, and anyone can walk in and pick up single servings of homemade pudding, brownies or pound cake to go.
Parking can be found on the street, across the avenue in the public lot at Lisbon and North, and in a limited number of spaces behind the building, courtesy of next-door neighbor Town Bank.
The welcoming atmosphere at Ruby J’s seems to come from the influence of the Browns — Eric is also Bishop E.R. Brown of Haven of Hope International Ministries — or maybe it’s the friendly and well-trained staff, or the satisfied customers. All we can say is that it’s refreshing to be greeted, and treated, like family in the heart of the city.
To learn more about Ruby J’s, stop by the café, visit Facebook for regular updates including what’s cooking, go to eatrubyjs.com for details and online orders, or call 414-635-0131.