Ruby Tuesday Sales up 15 Percent

Sales at Ruby Tuesday in Bentonville jumped by 15.7 percent for the first six months of the year, according to the city’s restaurant tax records.

(Click here for a list of the top restaurants.)

Ruby Tuesday had $832,300 in sales for the first half of this year compared with $719,600 for the same period of 2005, putting it at the No. 4 spot in the top 10 Bentonville restaurant list.

Lin’s Garden Chinese Restaurant and Shogun Steak House of Japan were the only locally owned restaurants on the list. Lin’s had $782,100 in food sales, up 16.2 percent from $673,053 last year. But Lin’s opened in February of 2005, making the percentage change slightly skewed.

Two McDonald’s restaurants took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. McDonald’s on Walton Boulevard had $1.4 million in sales, compared to $1.3 million last year, a 6.9 percent increase. The NASCAR McDonald’s had a slight decrease in sales this year, down 0.1 percent from $1,194,700 last year to $1,194,100 for the first six months this year.

Shogun Steak House of Japan and Pizza Hut also saw sales dip. Shogun had $945,700 in sales, down 4.7 percent from $992,800 last year. But it was still enough to land the restaurant in the No. 3 spot again for the first half of the year. Pizza Hut had the biggest decrease in sales, down 7.1 percent from $731,215 last year to $679,467, putting it at the No. 10 spot.

Sonic Drive-In on 14th Street, Taco Bell on Walton Boulevard and Panera Bread Co. had increases in sales, coming in at No. 5, No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. Sonic had $827,100 in sales, a 4.9 percent increase. Taco Bell had $741,781, a 3.1 percent increase over $719,319 last year. Panera had a 0.6 percent increase to $717,919.

Buffalo Wild Wings, in its first full year of operation, came in at No. 9 with $682,400. The restaurant opened in May last year.