When It's Top-10-Steakhouse List, The Knives Are Out -- One Rival Says Rankings Are Fraudulent; The Other Calls Them Brilliant Marketing

DALLAS - It all started when the Ruth's Chris steakhouse chain was bumped off the list of America's Top 10 Steakhouses.

That's when Ruth Fertel began her crusade to expose the annual list as a fraud, and that's when it became a federal case.

Fertel, who has 42 steakhouses nationwide, contends the list is bought and paid for by her nemesis, Dale Wamstad, owner of Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House in Dallas - No. 3 on the current list.

"Ruth's Chris will call it bogus and fraudulent, but I call it brilliant marketing," says Wamstad, whose business boomed when he began advertising his ranking in airline magazines.

The resulting lawsuits have exposed a bitter feud dating back a decade and crossing state lines - a sizzling underworld of pseudonyms and schemes, a gun-blazing wife and a son accused of smuggling recipes.

To Fertel and Wamstad, there's a lot at stake for their linen-tablecloth restaurants, where a piece of meat - with no side dishes - costs more than $25 on average.

The battle began in the early 1980s in New Orleans, where Fertel and Wamstad had competing steakhouses. They had never met, but Fertel says she had to deflect Wamstad's ads hinting that the dab of butter she put on her steaks made them greasy.

When she received an anonymous call that her son, Jerry, was slipping recipes to Wamstad, she was enraged. And when she was told Wamstad was behind the call and had made up the story, she was even more furious.

Adding more fuel to the feud was Wamstad's then-wife, Lena, who shot Wamstad three times - and missed with two other shots - in their New Orleans restaurant in 1985. She claimed a history of threats and abuse, and was acquitted.

Wamstad recovered and the couple divorced, but not before Fertel made this comment: "I said, `By the way, Lena, I got to tell you, I'm going to have to give you shooting lessons - anyone who shoots at someone five times and doesn't get him needs shooting lessons.' "

That didn't help relations with Wamstad, who left New Orleans to open a Del Frisco's in Dallas in 1989 and two weeks later made his debut on the newly created The Knife & Fork Club's America's Top 10 Steakhouses.

Wamstad says his longtime public-relations man, Thomas Horan, dreamed up the list and he has been paying Horan an average of $1,000 a month since.

"What am I going to do? He puts me on the list. Am I going to fire him?" Wamstad asks, then adds, "I almost fired him when I went from No. 2 to No. 3."

Horan signs the list "Jack Roach, food editor, The Knife & Fork Club of America Inc.," which initially tripped up Fertel's efforts to ferret out his true identity.

Reached at his office in Houston, Horan refuses to comment "because it's in litigation."

In a recent Knife & Fork Club brochure, he wrote that the list "receives input from the professional businessperson who travels and entertains." He defines a food critic as "anyone who pays to eat out."

Wamstad says Horan simply chooses the restaurants that he likes or that have good reputations.

When Fertel was told by David Wamstad that his brother had dreamed up the list, she published an article in her in-house newsletter calling it bogus. Wamstad sued for libel. Fertel countersued, alleging false advertising and unfair competition.

The dispute has sent a buzz throughout the steakhouse world.

"It's a joke. It's a promotion and an advertisement. It's not a critical list of people in my opinion," says Alan Stillman, owner of New York's Smith & Wollensky steakhouse. He says he was surprised to hear his restaurant made the list; it ranked ninth in 1991.

To Susan Gayford, part owner of the Chicago Chophouse, also on the list, the ranking is a marketing bonanza.

"We have always considered the list legitimate because we knew nothing about it," she says. "I've been to most of the restaurants on the list and they're all very good restaurants, and I have absolutely no problem with the list at all."

Wamstad, whose restaurant has won several awards, maintains the dispute is a case of a big chain trying to undermine an independent businessman.

He's done nothing illegal - only creative, he says. And he vows he won't be taken down by a vengeful competitor.

"It wasn't a bogus advertisement when they were on it," he says. "They don't get on the list and now they're destroying it. Everybody can go to hell. I'm working on a new list." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Top 10

The Knife & Fork Club's 1994 America's Top 10 Steakhouses:

1. Peter Luger Steak House, New York

2. Chicago Chop House, Chicago

3. Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House, Dallas

4. Ben Benson's Steak House, New York

5. Chops, Altanta

6. Metropolitan Grill, Seattle

7. Shula's Steak House, Miami Lakes, Fla.

8. Manny's, Minneapolis

9. Harris' Restaurant, San Francisco 10. Smoky's Club, Madison, Wis.

- Associated Press