Many New Orleanians vowed to never eat again at Ruth’s Chris Steak House when just after Katrina the chain relocated its headquarters to Florida and decided not to reopen its Mid-City birthplace. Located next to a casino and down the street from the convention center, the new New Orleans outlet attracts plenty of underdressed gamblers and conventioneers sporting lanyards. But the number of seersucker suits in the curtained booths show that plenty of locals forgave Ruth’s. How could they not? Those steaks served in pools of sizzling butter are as much a part of the local flavour as gumbo and red beans.