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Enoch and Devon Morris and their family will close their three-year-old barbecue restaurant Tuesday. The original restaurant in Chesterfield Village, shown here, closed in December 2013.
Enoch and Devon Morris and their family will close their three-year-old barbecue restaurant Tuesday. The original restaurant in Chesterfield Village, shown here, closed in December 2013.

Enoch's BBQ closing next week

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Enoch’s BBQ & Southern Classics is scheduled to close Feb. 24 after nearly three years in business.

Co-owner Devon Morris said the rising cost of groceries and other costs associated with the restaurant became too much. For example, she said brisket was $3 per pound when the restaurant started in April 2012 and now sells for around $6.50 per pound.

“(It’s) eaten into the profits to the point where we can’t really feasibly continue,” said Morris, declining to disclose revenues. “The kind of food we do is expensive. There’s not a high profit on meat.

“We use real ingredients and a lot of it, and it just didn’t work out for us.”

Morris, who owns the restaurant with her father and mother, Enoch and Debbie, and sister, Ryanne, opened the 307 S. National Ave. operation in November 2013 and a month later closed its original location in Chesterfield Village.

“It was too much to try to run both restaurants simultaneously,” she said. “We focused our efforts on this one, which was three times the amount of space.”

Morris said the owners are hanging their last hopes on a 11th-hour investor. While they’ve fielded a few phone calls, she said nothing looks to be panning out right now.

“This is our life. This our livelihood. This is in our blood. The food is really the food I grew up on and my sister grew up on,” she said. “I hate to see it go.”

Morris said the 12-employee restaurant will run specials through the weekend, with a Tuesday evening show by Jody Bilyeu of Big Smith.

A restaurant worker since she was 14, Morris said she’ll evaluate her future options and may consider going back to school. Her father had served as director of development and sales for Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts before retiring about two years ago, she said.

The South National property owned by Kirk Heyle of Heyle Realtors & Consulting Services LLC has experienced high turnover in recent years. Prior to Enoch’s, the building was populated by Moosehaven Saloon & Grill for a short time starting in February 2013. Previously, it had been Wing Shack, but that eatery closed abruptly when its owner reportedly shuttered it without telling employees or the landlord.

The 0.4-acre site has a 2014 taxable appraised value of $220,000, according to Greene County assessor records.[[In-content Ad]]

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