Ruthie’s on Smith Street revamps menu to focus on offerings for grown-ups

By Scott Lynch

Chef Marc St. Jaques opened Bar Bête on Friday, December 13, 2019, just three months before Covid shut the city down. Thankfully, Bar Bête survived the initial shock of lockdown, and has since become a Smith Street mainstay for those seeking a semi-sophisticated night on the town. So much so that St. Jacques and his team have already expanded their presence in the neighborhood with Ruthie’s, which opened just a block away as an all-day, diner-ish spot last November, complete with kids menu.

Now they’re switching things up a bit. “It started feeling like a burger joint,” says St. Jaques, “when the plan was to do much more. So we kind of pulled back on some of that stuff, to focus on dinner service, and our cocktail, beer, and wine lists. We’re happy to have kids but it’s not just a kid’s restaurant. We didn’t want to be the Carroll Gardens Chuck E. Cheese.”

We were at Ruthie’s for an early dinner on Wednesday night, and although half the tables had children of various ages dining with moms and/or dads, it vibed more fun night out than family time. The lights were low, the music loud (Beastie Boys, B52s, Buzzcocks), and $10 happy hour cocktails and glasses of wine were flowing freely.

The vibe (Scott Lynch)

But it’s the menu that’s seen the most changes at Ruthie’s. “It’s not ‘New American ‘ like everybody was doing for a little bit,” says St. Jacques. “We’re not featuring a specific region of the United States, but kind of highlighting flavors that you’d see across the country. We’re putting a lot of twists on everything.”

A crowd-pleaser like macaroni and cheese, for example, served baked and chewy, now also comes laden with bright and bitter mustard greens and funky fermented chili. The pot pie, once a weekly special, is available every night, the pastry-encased chicken, bacon, and chestnuts smothered in “boozy gravy.”  And watercress and egg yolk have been added to St. Jacques’s beer battered fluke, a.k.a. fish and chips.

There’s still a burger here (there used to be five), and it’s a dry-aged beauty: juicy, gooey with melted cheddar, and slathered in a terrific horseradish aioli.

Dry-aged burger and fries; $22 (Scott Lynch)

And Ruthie’s meatloaf might be even better, a slab of ground lamb sitting in a puddle of curry ketchup, butting up against a mound of creamy mashed potatoes.

Lamb meatloaf; $28 (Scott Lynch)

If you’re just looking for something to snack on whilst sipping a pint of, say, Two Roads to Ruin double IPA, the crunchy, sweet, and spicy honey roasted chili peanuts are a good bet, as are the borderline-overkill potato and cheese toasties.

Potato and cheese toasties; $9 (Scott Lynch)

Baloney toast, baked oysters with ham, a garlicky Caesar salad, seaweed popcorn, and, for high rollers, a $42 steak in mushroom butter round out St. Jacques’s new options.

For dessert, skip the vanilla pear sundae, which eats, basically, like a parfait glass of pretzels (the ice cream has little flavor, and the caramel sauce is irretrievably glued to the sides). Maybe try the chocolate pudding?

Vanilla pear sundae; $10 (Scott Lynch)

St. Jacques grew up outside of Toronto, “cooked all over America,” and settled in Brooklyn about six years ago. He came here for love, is now married with a daughter (middle name: Ruthie, like his mother and grandmother), and, after a short stint at the Breslin in Manhattan before that place imploded, has put down roots in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill. “One marriage, one kid, two restaurants… it hasn’t been easy,” he says. “But it’s been fun.”

Ruthie’s is located at 241 Smith Street, at the corner of Douglass Street, and is currently open on Tuesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., on Saturday from 2 to 10 p.m., and on Sunday from 2 to 9 p.m. (917-909-0478)