Even Captain Ribman couldn’t save his superhero haunt.

The Meat Market, Ribman’s downtown “sports bar with a wicked sense of humor,” is closing this week after being rendered powerless by competition from national retailers and getting choked by Lawrence’s smoking ban.

“It’s like a funeral for a friend,” said Rich Davis, business owner and co-creator of the meat-oriented comic strip. “It’s a disaster. And in my opinion, it didn’t need to happen.”

The restaurant and bar lasted 17 months at 811 N.H., which formerly had been home to the Bleu Jacket, an upscale French-American bistro.

The Meat Market’s signature Gooburgers, fried Twinkies and Ribman’s other power-packed edibles couldn’t keep the business afloat, Davis said.

Sales had dropped 30 percent from a year ago, despite several marketing moves — including the welcoming of poker tournaments and fraternity and sorority functions — designed to keep customers coming. But two business challenges ultimately proved too much to overcome, Davis said:

• The proliferation of retail outlets on Iowa Street, including Best Buy, Home Depot, World Market and others whose presence drained customers from downtown and spawned new restaurants that drew people from the central business district.
• A smoking ban that has led other businesses to open patios, build outdoor decks and otherwise propose building renovations to accommodate legions of smoke-inhaling customers whose tolerance for limits on their freedoms do not extend to a former seed house at the edge of downtown.


The Meat Market, 811 N.H., is closing after less than two years in business. The owner blames the growth of chain stores on Iowa Street and a citywide smoking ban for cutting into business.

“I’m not new to the business,” said Davis, who spent 10 years developing restaurants for K.C. Masterpiece in the Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago metro areas. “Local owners are nimble. I don’t mind a challenge. That’s OK.

“But, truly, the tide went out, and there’s only so much water that’s left.”

Caught in the riptide: 35 employees, most of them part-time, who are losing their jobs.

Davis still can’t believe The Meat Market couldn’t survive. He’d figured on the latest concept playing well in the heart of a city whose lifeblood flows crimson and blue for the Kansas Jayhawks.

But even with game-day promotions and more than a dozen TVs — plasma, big-screen and otherwise — The Meat Market couldn’t turn up enough in-town business to offset the loss of smokers who used to drive in from Topeka, Eudora or suburban Kansas City.

“Lawrence is not big enough to compensate for that,” Davis said. “That’s part of the equation that was never figured. In any entertainment district — whether it’s Westport, or any of these other places — if you tell out-of-towners that there is no smoking, you know what? That’s fine. It’s your right to do it. But they’re going to find someplace else to go.”

The Meat Market closed its kitchen Monday, and intends to keep its bar open nightly through at least Wednesday to “say goodbye” to customers, Davis said.