In a widely circulated social media dress code fight, Ruth’s Chris gets schooled by Chili’s

Chili’s fired back at its rival chain, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, with a humorous roast over its “business casual” dress code policy, which has been in place since before the dawn of the Internet. In 2023, the company began enforcing it again on its website and online.

One of the reasons this dress code remains in the national spotlight is that Ruth’s Chris is owned by Darden Restaurants, which also owns two other full-service casual-dining brands, and they take the overall “proper” dress code exceedingly seriously in each of their restaurants’ public dining rooms.

While the stated dress code requirement is the same as it has been for years (wearing “proper” attire in all of the restaurants’ public dining rooms), the list of items prohibited includes: workout apparel; swimwear; tank tops; clothing that contains offensive graphics, words, phrases or slogans; provocative/distracting apparel; clothing worn without undergarments; and headwear—of which the single piece of prohibited headwear is a baseball-style cap (the restaurant wants you to wear your cap in the restaurant’s bar/ lounge area). The dress code has been a source of ongoing debate with regard to fine-dining etiquette over the last several decades. Critics of the dress code argue it is “old-fashioned” and “uninviting,” whereas proponents feel it maintains the ambience of higher-end dining establishments.

Chili’s took full advantage of X (previously Twitter) and responded to a Twitter post covering Ruth’s Chris restaurant’s dress code, which went viral for Chili’s response that “The only dress code at Chili’s is … you must be dressed to eat.” Shortly after, that specific post gained over 1,000,000 views and created what many would now call a humorous “feud” (between the two chains) while also showing off the casual nature of Chili’s atmosphere.

The response on social media from Twitter users was mixed. Some Twitter users responded to the tweet and said things such as “I would much rather go to Chili’s restaurant” to show their preference for inclusivity when compared to a more dressy style. While at the same time other users responded to defend Ruth’s Chris restaurant to explain that although both places are good restaurants, the experience each of the two restaurants provides is different, with one being more fancy/intimate than the other.

Overall, this viral interaction demonstrated two different approaches to running a restaurant, where Ruth’s Chris restaurant believes in higher quality and Chili’s restaurant believes in providing access for more people. Although there were no official responses from either Darden or Ruth’s Chris restaurants regarding the viral tweet, other than the dress code guidelines, you can see how much passion there is for dining and the way people discuss it via social media.