Luby's Culinary Services provides contract food-service management to 18 healthcare, higher education, and corporate dining locations, such as Texas Children's Hospital, Lone Star College, and formerly, Baylor College of Medicine, which ended its relationship with Luby's in March 2015.

[2][3][4] Bob Luby’s father, Harry, opened his first cafeteria called the New England Dairy Lunch in 1911, after a business trip in Chicago.

By the time Bob was 40, he became successful, with his cafeterias spreading several states, and retired to pass the business to his son.

[citation needed] In 1959, the original partners formed Cafeterias, Inc. Luby's continued to expand, entering other Texas cities and locations in contiguous states.

[7] The addition of the Pappas management team saw several Luby's restaurants begin to transition from traditional cafeteria-style establishments to hybrid cafeteria/fine dining.

[10] In 2009, due to the economic recession, Luby's closed 25 stores and laid off staff as a cost-cutting measure.

[13] On June 13, 2011, Luby's opened its first company-owned Fuddruckers restaurant in downtown Houston's tunnel system.

Technomic consumer insights senior manager Robert Byrne stated that the fast casual restaurants reduced Luby's market share.

[6] During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, Luby's, Inc. furloughed more than half of its corporate staff and cut the pay of remaining salaried employees by 50%.

On September 8, 2020, Luby's further announced it has adopted a plan to liquidate all of its existing assets, as opposed to operating in the current form or merely selling off divisions.