The Ruby Tuesday at 1953 Savannah Highway in West Ashley is no longer operating, ending the chain’s Charleston presence. A notice at the entrance said the restaurant had closed permanently.
The West Ashley restaurant closed on Aug. 20, according to the Post and Courier. Ruby Tuesday also has locations in Walterboro and Orangeburg.
With the Savannah Highway restaurant gone, Ruby Tuesday has locations around South Carolina, including restaurants in Florence, North Augusta, Rock Hill and Lexington. Ruby Tuesday was founded in Tennessee in 1972 and built its brand around an all-you-can-eat salad bar, burgers and ribs, under the motto of simple, fresh American dining.
A Chain That Once Called Charleston Home
Ruby Tuesday’s Charleston-area history includes a restaurant at Northwoods Mall. That local connection makes the West Ashley closure feel like more than just another shuttered strip-mall chain restaurant to longtime Lowcountry diners.
West Ashley’s Broader Development Priorities
The City of Charleston’s Plan West Ashley sets area-wide policies to support complementary economic growth and revitalize obsolete auto-centric commercial areas. The plan does not address the Ruby Tuesday closure specifically.
The Charleston closure fits into a broader pattern of contraction the company has been going through across the Midlands and Lowcountry this year. In Summerville, the local Ruby Tuesday closed in 2025, and that site is now set for demolition to make way for a second Summerville location of 7 Brew Coffee at 1320 N. Main St., according to The Post and Courier.
Columbia Also Losing Restaurants
Columbia-area diners have been watching their own Ruby Tuesday footprint shrink this year too. The chain closed its West Columbia restaurant at 2504 Augusta Road, with a closure sign spotted on the door in July, and shut down its Garners Ferry Road location in Columbia around the same time, per a sign seen on that door days later. The exact dates both restaurants stopped serving customers remain unclear, the outlet noted.
Those two closures left Lexington as the only Ruby Tuesday restaurant remaining in the Midlands, at 5464 Sunset Boulevard. A report citing the chain's website in July put the company's South Carolina footprint at 10 locations statewide at that time, as reported by TheStreet, though the company's presence has clearly kept shrinking since.
Years of Retrenchment
This isn't Ruby Tuesday's first round of cuts in the state. The chain shuttered 185 locations nationwide during a restructuring tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a dozen in South Carolina, according to earlier Post and Courier reporting. TheStreet reported that Ruby Tuesday's website listed 174 operating locations as of July 20, 2026, a steep drop for a brand that once anchored strip malls and shopping centers across the Southeast.
For now, Charleston diners craving the chain's salad bar, burgers or ribs will have to seek them outside Charleston. Whether any new tenant moves into the old West Ashley building remains to be seen.
