Ruth Rogers

‘When we started the restaurant it was very Tuscan-based – it was what we knew and some of us had family there,’ says Ruth. ‘But then we started to get to know more about the other parts of Italy. We’d visit Piedmont to learn about the wine, naturally picking up on the polenta and local cuisine there. We’d journey down south to Puglia and see the vegetables and tuna and chickpeas, or learn about Ligurian cuisine during other trips. Tuscany has always been at the heart of The River Cafe but we’ve spread out over the years. Someone once said they see The River Cafe as its own extra little region of Italy, as we have our own identity now, which I really like.’

Ruth Ann Rogers, 57, of Richmond, OH passed away on February 9th, 2021 at UPMC of Pittsburgh. She was born March 8th, 1963, in Steubenville, OH. A daughter of the late Mary Crawford and Arthur Crawford. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Edward...

Over the last three decades, the River Cafe’s Ruth Rogers has got her Christmas celebrations down to a fine art. “Every year since 1991, I’ve had my family here in London in the run-up to the holidays, then a group of us has travelled to Puerto Escondido in Mexico ahead of 25 December,” the upstate New York native says warmly over the phone from her legendary Hammersmith restaurant.