Beyonce and Jay-Z perform their On The Run II tour at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford NJ, Aug. 2, 2018. (Robin Harper | Parkwood Entertainment)
By Ann Maloney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - The day after husband-and-wife powerhouse, Beyonce and Jay-Z rocked the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with their "On The Run II" concert, they rocked the world of Alexis and Jordan Ruiz, owners of The Munch Factory on Sophie B. Wright Place.
The two superstars stopped in for lunch that Friday (Sept. 14), after Thursday's concert in New Orleans.
"The night before I was joking with the staff, saying 'hey, we're going to stay open late because Jay-Z and Beyonce are looking for a spot after the concert,'" said Alexis Ruiz, who owns the restaurant with her husband. "They all laughed."
The next day a call came from a friend that at first seemed unbelievable to Ruiz.
"A friend of mine called and said Beyonce was looking for a place to have lunch," she said, adding the friend told her to be on the look-out for any unknown numbers popping up on her phone.
The Ruizes have a friend, Sean Frazier, who has been coming to The Munch Factory for years. He told someone in the couple's circle about the place, Ruiz said.
To give the couple privacy, the restaurant owners decided to close for a couple of hours.
"They didn't ask us to close," Ruiz said. "We thought that would be best because we didn't want a scene. We didn't want anyone to infringe on their privacy.
"They had a lot of seafood," she said. "They especially liked the oysters Gentilly, the shrimp and grits and the bread pudding."
For her husband, chef Jordan Ruiz, it was exciting to see his food appreciated by the celebrity couple, she said.
"It was just enough that they came, but it mean a lot that they really did enjoy it," Alexis Ruiz said. (The couple's publicist asked that she not quote the couple directly.)
She described two celebrities as being "unbelievably kind," noting that they posed with the staff pictured in this Tweet below: From left, Lauren Sanders, Alexis Ruiz, Ryan Williams, Beyonce, Jay-Z, chef Jordan Ruiz and Jason Bignar.
The staff hasn't had much experience with celebrity customers, Ruiz said.
"We thought it was crazy and exciting when (then-Mayor) Mitch Landrieu came to eat," she said. "We were all posing with him."
To be singled out meant a lot to the restaurateurs.
"That was what was so touching," Ruiz said. "There are 1,400 plus restaurants in the city and they came to little old Munch.
"I told Jay-Z, it means a lot that you guys are here, but I feel that way about everybody that comes to our restaurant. He really seems to appreciate that comment and I meant it," Ruiz said, adding, after a beat, "but come on this is like the king and the queen of world."
