{"product_id":"the-gorilla-man-and-the-empress-of-steak-a-new-orleans-family-memoir-9781617030826","title":"The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir\u003c\/strong\u003e by Fertel, Randy. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781617030826.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak is the story of two larger-than-life characters and the son whom their lives helped to shape. Ruth Fertel was a petite, smart, tough-as-nails blonde with a weakness for rogues, who founded the Ruth\"s Chris Steak House empire almost by accident. Rodney Fertel was a gold-plated, one-of-a-kind personality, a railbird-heir to wealth from a pawnshop of dubious repute just around the corner from where the teenage Louis Armstrong and his trumpet were discovered. When Fertel ran for mayor of New Orleans on a single campaign promise-buying a pair of gorillas for the zoo-he garnered a paltry 308 votes. Then he purchased the gorillas anyway!These colorful figures yoked together two worlds not often connected-lazy rice farms in the bayous and swinging urban streets where ethnicities jazzily collided. A trip downriver to the hamlet of Happy Jack focuses on its French-Alsatian roots, bountiful tables, and self-reliant lifestyle that inspired a restaurant lege\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45254451593269,"sku":"ByrdShop_1617030821","price":23.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781617030826_b4f72a9a-a2a7-4428-8130-4c7ef3bf1a39.jpg?v=1779960035","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-gorilla-man-and-the-empress-of-steak-a-new-orleans-family-memoir-9781617030826","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}