Two restaurants in Dublin city owned by celebrity chef Dylan McGrath are set to close with customers being told that business is “simply not sustainable anymore”.
The restaurants which are due to close immediately are Brasserie Sixty6 and Rustic Stone, both of which are located on South Great George’s Street.
Customers who attempt to book a table at either of the restaurants are now met with a message that reads: “Unfortunately, after many successful years, we’ve made the very difficult decision to close our Brasserie Sixty6 and Rustic Stone Venues.”
“Both have been very successful restaurants in Dublin City for a long time, but the time has come where we have decided it’s simply not sustainable anymore.”
The message goes on to say if a customer has an existing booking coming up, they will be contacted in the coming days. Mr McGrath’s Fade Street Social restaurant will continue to operate as usual.
In May, it was reported that the company behind Rustic Stone — Prime Steak Ltd — posted profits of €2.75m last year mainly as a result of debt writedowns. This was after posting losses of nearly €900,000 the prior financial year.
The company went through the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process (SCARP) which allows firms to restructure their debts and continue to do business.
This comes following figures by the Restaurants Association of Ireland which showed that more than 570 restaurants, cafes, and other food businesses have permanently shut their doors since last September.
The Restaurant’s Association of Ireland (RAI) has published new data that reveal the extent of closures across the sector amid rising business costs and the end of the temporary Vat reduction for the sector. A total of 45 restaurants, cafés, and other food-led businesses ceased trading in July alone, according to the RAI.