-
Susan Ramirez, sitting at a table made from original cabinetry of the house that became Susan’s Courtside Café, shows off pictures of the original renovation. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
Susan Ramirez purchased the house on Orlando Avenue that would become her eponymous cafe nearly 20 years.
She had experience in the restaurant business and knew the location — next door to the Osceola County Courthouse — would draw customers.
“Your location is pretty much everything,” said Ramirez, whose father Bob Murphy owned and operated the nearby Tropical Court Apartments for 45 years. “With all the experience with my dad, I knew that if I was going to do it, I was going to buy it.”
Kissimmee city officials didn’t necessarily share her vision at first, she said. It took six months to convince them to rezone the property for restaurant operations and another year for local architect John Link to transform the old Florida house into Susan’s Courtside Cafe.
But Ramirez’s “Field of Dreams” intuition was right. She built the restaurant, and the people came.
Since opening in 2003, Susan’s Courtside Cafe has drawn a bustling crowd of courthouse regulars by day. It’s where attorneys meet with clients, judges pop in for a cup of coffee and courthouse employees take refuge during their lunch hours.
It also has a devoted group of regulars, some of whom have become friends with Ramirez. They like to come later, when the courthouse is closed and the vibe is distinctly different.
Quaint and warm, the cafe has also been a venue for meetings, parties and other events over the years.
No matter what time of day or what the occasion, Susan’s has always been known for good service and good food, a place to relax and enjoy a cup of the house-roasted coffee or a glass of wine.
Her children helped her design the menu, which hasn’t changed since she opened. (For the record, the chicken feta pizza and mandarin orange salad are still her most popular dishes.)
And it’s not just the food that brings people in, she said.
“Sometimes people need someone to talk to and I listen. The folks on their computers, they don’t want to talk. But other people come in for that,” she said.
Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Ramirez relocated to Kissimmee in 1988 to raise her family near her parents who moved here in 1972.
Unassuming and generous, Ramirez has become a fixture in the downtown business community and her family-run cafe is practically an institution. Between the 2008 recession and the pandemic, it hasn’t always been easy. But Ramirez has always made it out on top.
Still, all good things must come to an end.
“I’m ready to retire,” said Ramirez, who has put the restaurant up for sale with Kissimmee-based 3% Real E$tate, but stresses the café is not closing, just being offered up to new ownership.
She wants to spend more time with her five children and 20 grandchildren. And after recently turning 70, “I didn’t want to wait too long and not be able to enjoy any of my retirement,” she said. “When you start losing people you’re close to that are your age, you have to step back and think, ‘Is it worth it?’”
Until there’s a buyer, Ramirez will still continue running Susan’s Courtside Cafe much to the delight of regulars like Heather Browne. The retired Disney World gardener has been coming to the cafe every Wednesday night with her husband for 15 years.
“It’s such a special place and Susan’s such a special person, so giving. It’s hard to find people like that and places like that,” Browne said. She and Ramirez have become friends over the years. It began when Browne started helping decorate the cafe for the holidays.
This year’s festivities will be bittersweet when the two women deck the halls one last time at Susan’s Courtside Cafe.
“Her legacy is the quiet, hometown feel of that restaurant and the service and food you get there,” Browne said.
“She created a place to enjoy a quiet meal in this busy world we live in, and I hope the person who busy it can accomplish that.”
