Ruth's Chris Steak House Indianapolis Northside has opened a redesigned private dining and events wing, giving Prime Hospitality Group a larger footprint for group business at one of its 13 Midwest and Southeast franchise locations.
The New Spaces
The expansion adds two distinct rooms: the Estate Room, which seats up to 36 guests, and the Vintage Room, which accommodates up to 24. A private bar and lounge rounds out the offering, open Friday and Saturday evenings for pre-dinner cocktails or after-dinner drinks. For larger buyouts, all three spaces — Estate Room, Vintage Room, and the private bar — can be combined into a single exclusive event venue, a configuration that positions the location to compete for mid-sized corporate and social events that might otherwise migrate to hotel banquet space or standalone event venues.
Operator Takeaway
The buildout reflects a broader trend in full-service dining: operators investing in flexible, bookable private spaces as a hedge against softness in walk-in traffic and a reliable driver of higher per-head revenue. Private dining and event segments typically carry stronger average check values than dining-room covers, and they allow operators to lock in guaranteed minimums well in advance. For franchise groups managing multiple branded locations, investing in differentiated on-site amenities is also a way to deepen a local market presence that the national brand alone cannot provide.
Kristy Rans, President of Prime Hospitality Group, framed the expansion around guest behavior. "Whether it's an intimate dinner, a corporate gathering or a larger celebration, these spaces allow us to create a more personalized experience while delivering the hospitality our guests know and expect," she said.
Prime Hospitality Group, a family-owned Indianapolis-based operator, runs a portfolio that spans the Ruth's Chris franchise network alongside Marriott hotel properties and proprietary concepts including The Exchange, Brasserie 23, and Un Deux Trois Café. The diversified model means private dining at a steakhouse location feeds into the same events and hospitality infrastructure the company uses across its hotel and restaurant brands — a cross-selling advantage independent operators rarely have.
For restaurant groups evaluating similar investments, the Indianapolis Northside build illustrates how a strategically partitioned private space can serve multiple dayparts and occasion types without requiring a full footprint expansion. Operators tracking private dining and group revenue strategies or broader hospitality industry trends will find the PHG model a useful case study in leveraging existing square footage for higher-yield bookings.
Reservations for the new private spaces are now open.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
