Luby’s Restaurant Corporation is a chain of

cafeteria A cafeteria, called canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether in a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a scho ...

-style restaurants in Texas. In the past, Luby's Inc. also owned the

Fuddruckers Fuddruckers (sometimes abbreviated as Fudds) is an American fast casual, franchised restaurant chain that specializes in hamburgers. As of 2019, Fuddruckers had 49 company-operated restaurants and 107 franchises across the United States and ar ...

Koo Koo Roo Koo Koo Roo was an American fast casual restaurant chain specializing in charbroiled chicken founded in 1988 by Los Angeles-based restaurateurs Mike and Ray Badalian. The name "Koo Koo Roo" was an onomatopoeic reference to the crow of a roost ...

, and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chains. As of April 2024, the company operates 38 locations in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Its headquarters is in the Near Northwest district of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The original location was founded in 1947 in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, Texas, by Robert Luby (1910–1998). Luby's Culinary Services provides contract food-service management to 18 healthcare, higher education, and corporate dining locations, such as

Texas Children's Hospital Texas Children's Hospital is an acute care women's and children's hospital located in Houston, Texas. With 973 beds, it is the primary pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and is located within the Texas Medical ...

, Lone Star College, and formerly,

Baylor College of Medicine The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a private medical school in Houston, Texas, United States. Originally as the Baylor University College of Medicine from 1903 to 1969, the college became independent with the current name and has been se ...

, which ended its relationship with Luby's in March 2015.

History

Bob Luby’s father, Harry, opened his first cafeteria called the New England Dairy Lunch in 1911, after a business trip in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. By the time Bob was 40, he became successful, with his cafeterias spreading several states, and retired to pass the business to his son. Bob worked many jobs in the cafeteria industry before founding Luby’s. After graduating from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, he ran cafeterias in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and Corpus Christi. He moved back to Texas after a satisfied customer, Georgina Wenglein and her husband convinced him. Bob opened his first Luby's Cafeteria in 1947, focusing on fresh food and

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...

. Luby's soon expanded outside of San Antonio to Tyler, Harlingen,

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

, and Beaumont. In 1959, the original partners formed Cafeterias, Inc. Luby's continued to expand, entering other Texas cities and locations in contiguous states. Luby's entered Houston for the first time when it opened Romana Cafeteria in 1965. Locations opened in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

in 1966 and in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

in 1980. In 1973, Cafeterias, Inc., became a

publicly traded company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

. To honor Bob Luby, Cafeterias, Inc., was renamed Luby's Cafeterias, Inc., in 1981. One year later, Luby's shares were listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

. By 1987, Luby's had reached 100 locations.. The company operated in 11 states in 1996, having over 200 restaurants at that time. In 2001, Chris and Harris

Pappas Pappas or Papas (, ) is a Greek surname, which means "priest" (occupational surname). In the United States, it is often a shortened form of a longer surname like ''Papadopoulos'' or ''Papageorgiou''.Louis Adamic, ''What's Your Name'', 1942, p. 49 T ...

of Houston's Pappas Restaurants (owners of Pappasito's Cantina, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, etc.) joined the Luby's management team. Three years later, Luby's moved its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Houston. The addition of the Pappas management team saw several Luby's restaurants begin to transition from traditional cafeteria-style establishments to hybrid cafeteria/fine dining. Luby's celebrated its 60th anniversary in December 2006 with publishing ''Luby’s Recipes & Memories: A Collection of our Favorite Dishes and Heartwarming Stories''. In 2008, Luby's published a special edition of the cookbook that included 12 additional recipes. In 2009, due to the economic recession, Luby's closed 25 stores and laid off staff as a cost-cutting measure. In 2010, Luby's Culinary Services introduced "What's Brewing?", a coffeehouse concept store in

downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45 ...

. The same year, on June 18, Luby's announced it was buying

and Koo Koo Roo for $61 million after parent company Magic Brands LLC went bankrupt. On June 13, 2011, Luby's opened its first company-owned Fuddruckers restaurant in downtown Houston's tunnel system. In 2013, Luby's acquired Cheeseburger in Paradise. In August 2015, 93 Luby's were operating, and this declined to 78 in 2019. Technomic consumer insights senior manager Robert Byrne stated that the

fast casual A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States and Canada, is a restaurant that does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is a ...

restaurants reduced Luby's market share. During the 2020

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

, Luby's, Inc. furloughed more than half of its corporate staff and cut the pay of remaining salaried employees by 50%. Luby's Inc also applied for and received a loan of US$10 million as part of the

Paycheck Protection Program The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $953-billion business loan program established by the United States federal government during the First presidency of Donald Trump, Trump administration in 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and ...

Sale of Fuddruckers and acquisition by Calvin Gin

On June 3, 2020, Luby's board of directors announced plans to sell all its operating divisions and assets, including real estate assets. This decision was influenced in part by circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Net proceeds from transactions were to benefit Luby's stockholders. The company did not have a definitive timeline for future transactions, but expected to eventually wind down remaining operations. On September 8, 2020, Luby's further announced it has adopted a plan to

liquidate Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as wound-up or dissolved, although di ...

all of its existing assets, as opposed to operating in the current form or merely selling off divisions. As of September 11, 2020, 80 Luby's and Fuddruckers were still in operation. About 99% of Luby's stockholders voted for dissolution in November 2020. On June 21, 2021, Calvin Gin, founder of Flying Food Group, agreed to buy 32 Luby's locations for $28.7 million, a week after Nicholas Perkins of North Carolina agreed to buy Luby's Fuddruckers brand for $18.5 million. Prior to the announcement of Gin's acquisition, Luby's had planned to close all locations by August 2021.

Headquarters

In July 2004, Luby's announced that it would move its headquarters from

to Houston, where Pappas Restaurants has its headquarters. At that time Luby's did not yet state to where it would be moving; the company stated that it would most likely move to a suburb in

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the Office of Management and Budget, United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, is the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical ...

; 80 jobs were transferred to Houston. Luby's has its headquarters in Suite 600 of the 13111 Northwest Freeway building in the Near Northwest district in Houston.

In media

The LuAnn Platter, a popular combination platter served at Luby's, inspired the name of the character

Luanne Platter ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. The main characters are Hank Hill, Peggy Hill, Bobby Hill, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, Jeff Boomhauer, Luanne Platter, Nancy Gribble, Joseph Gribble, ...

on the animated television series ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...

''. The cafeteria itself is characterized as "Luly's" on the show.

History

Sale of Fuddruckers and acquisition by Calvin Gin

Headquarters

In media

References

External links