New Walnut Creek restaurant will be serving fancy cocktails and boujee snacks for adults and kids alike
What happens when someone with an art degree and background in set design then goes on to have a 20-year career as a mixologist in upscale restaurants, then decides she wants to start her own establishment?
Ruby Lou’s in Walnut Creek is the answer.
What is Ruby Lou’s? Part bar, part restaurant; part kids play zone, part adult play zone. It’s whatever you want it to be, because the place beckons for you to use your imagination.
It was, after all, inspired by a 4-year-old.
“I have a 4-year-old daughter whose name is Ruby Lou,” said the restaurant’s owner, Megan Abraham Benshalom. “And she named the restaurant after herself.”
It was Ruby Lou who inspired Megan to start her own thing after Megan felt like she missed the greater portion of Ruby Lou’s life due to work commitments. She was working until 3 a.m. most nights in her job as a general manager of the upscale View Lounge in the San Francisco Marriott Marquis and felt like she was losing her life to her job.
She took joy in hanging with her daughter and had a particularly great time at Ruby Lou’s third birthday party, when the whole family went to Skipolini’s, the family-friendly Walnut Creek pizzeria play area that was ripe for birthday parties.
But when Skipolini’s closed in May, Benshalom felt like she needed to take it upon herself to create another place that could host kids’ birthday parties while simultaneously serving as a welcoming spot for adults to let loose.
“What I’m creating for Walnut Creek is an experience for multiple generations,” she said.
The dichotomy of Ruby Lou’s can be seen by taking one look at the bar.
The stools are shaped like Oreo cookies and ice cream cones. There are lollipops hanging from the ceiling and candy-like decorations jumping off every wall. Shades of pink, purple and cotton candy blue fill the room with whimsy.
If it feels right out of Roald Dahl’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” that’s because Benshalom was inspired by the old chocolatier himself.
“I’ve created, like, an immersive floral candy garden,” she said.
She’s also using two decades of experience as a high-end mixologist to serve up a unique cocktail menu that’ll feature several signature drinks she’s been hard at work designing. Local beers and wines will also be available.
The food menu, too, is carefully crafted.
Think nachos, but made with homemade potato chips and slow braised short ribs. Think hot dogs, but made out of Wagyu beef and put between a pretzel bun.
And for the kids, an ice cream bar with flavors like huckleberry, pistachio almond, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip and birthday cake. Can’t decide on one? Order the “yolo” sundae and get one scoop of each.
The kids can then go play one of the claw arcade games, or engage in a game of Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders. There are no game boards though; the games were artistically installed right into the tables.
Giant games of KerPlunk are there to lure adults off their phones and towards social interaction.
The decorations, furniture, murals and wall art were either created or selected by the owner, with help from Ruby Lou, of course.
The entire experience is sure to be one to remember.
“Family by day, fabulous by night,” is how Benshalom is describing it.
Ruby Lou’s is now open for private parties and expects to open to the public any day now.
Details: Open now for scheduled private events, and opening soon to the public. Hours will be 4 to 10 p.m Wednesday through Friday, and 12 to 10 p.m. on weekends, at 1501 N. Broadway in Walnut Creek; @rubylouswalnutcreek on Instagram.