ORLANDO, Fla. – The owners of Black Rooster Taqueria have plenty of reason to celebrate.
The restaurant owners, John and Juliana Calloway, are getting ready to mark five years in business in the heart of Orlando’s trendy Mills 50 district. At the same time, the couple is working on opening up a second location in another up-and-coming part of the city, the Hourglass District.
It’s a plan the pair have been working on for years but thought they would have to put it on hold as the pandemic hit.
“We looked and looked and then we just couldn’t find the right thing and then 2020 hit and we were like ‘okay, maybe let’s pause,’” Juliana Calloway said. “And then all of a sudden this space became available and now our biggest thing was outdoor seating.”
The Calloways say the new location on the corner of Curry Ford Road and South Crystal Lake Drive will offer the outdoor seating that’s become such a hot commodity since the pandemic began. The new restaurant is also double the space of their Mills 50 spot and which will allow them to expand their catering business and their menu.
The couple says the new location is likely to open sometime over the summer, but they also say their expansion plans do not end there.
“I think we just want to try to continue to grow our company,” John Calloway said. “Keep being a part of the community and involved with Orlando and, down the road, open up another location or two.”
You can hear their entire conversation with Candace Campos on the latest Florida Foodie where the Calloways share how they’ve managed to navigate the pandemic and thrive. They also explain the origin of the black rooster they named their business after.
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Florida Foodie is a bi-weekly podcast from WKMG and Graham Media that takes a closer look at what we eat, how we eat it and the impact that has on us here in Florida and for everyone, everywhere.
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