Family-owned Black Market Ribs in Ocoee fighting closure

OCOEE – Black Market Ribs located in Ocoee on 14 McKey Street has 27 Facebook reviews and an impressive 4.7-star rating – but the good reviews were not enough to save it from an uncertain future as the co-owners cling to their last hope to stay in business.

"It's just a very emotional time right now," said Black Market Ribs co-owner Courtney Connor before agreeing to talk about the future of the modest family-owned restaurant.

Co-owners Juan Rios and Connor spoke in subdued voices as they explained what they suspect might have led to the potential downfall of their first business venture. 

“We put so much work into it,” said Rios, referring to the origins of their humble food business. “We put probably two years of research into this, you know, researching the industry, researching the farmers’ markets, researching food trucks, and just getting my skill set to a level that was worthy of getting paid to make food for others. … So that’s when we went ahead and started going to farmers’ markets and got a great response from the customers.”

The pair first opened the eatery September 24, 2016, after strongly considering the idea of joining the food truck movement. However, they eventually decided on investing in a brick-and-mortar location, instead.

“We actually had started building the concept for our own food truck but then we thought this was a better idea, and we kind of went ahead and pulled the money out of the food truck and put it in here,” Rios explained. “And it backfired on us.”

Despite their promising start and success in farmers market around Central Florida, their financial circumstances quickly went downhill. And the fate of their young restaurant now lies at the mercy of two potential investors who expressed interest in helping after hearing the news that Black Market Ribs would be closing on social media.

“We went through all the motions to save the business,” Rios said. “And then once we posted up that we were closing, people came out to say, ‘Ok, we’re interested in helping you guys.’ So here I am renting a U-Haul truck to move to Georgia and all of a sudden these guys show up saying, ‘We want to invest in you guys.’ And now they’re just taking their time to decide.”

As of late, keeping their business going has required 16-hour work days, an unhealthy amount of financial stress and some weight loss. Rios said it has been very challenging to pull off, and if things don’t work out with the interested investors, Rios and Connor will be moving to Georgia April 6.

These two investors will constitute their last attempt to stay in business. The ideal situation for Rios and Connor, they said, is that the investors will say yes, and help them renovate the restaurant by adding covered outside seating to the front of their establishment and three to four tables inside. They also would aim to amp up their marketing with the goal of generating enough customers and revenue to keep doing what they love, as they're convinced their decision to participate in Groupon deals was the beginning of the end. 

"Groupon killed us,” Connor said. “It became a day-to-day struggle to where …. if nothing but Groupon customers showed up that day, then we had no money to buy food for the next day. Let alone try to pay our bills.”

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Contact Gabby Baquero at [email protected]