‘We have battled for the last two years to keep going. However, we simply can’t continue any longer.’
Potager, the award-winning fine-dining restaurant based in Skerries in Dublin, has announced it is closing its doors.
Located at 7 Church Street in the north Dublin town, Potager was launched six years ago and was included in the prestigious Michelin Guide for 2023.
It also won the Best Contemporary Irish Cuisine in Dublin award at the 2024 Irish Restaurant Awards and was named as one of Ireland top 100 restaurants in 2023 by The Sunday Times’ McKenna’s Guide.
Despite these accolades, its owners have issued a closing statement where they referred to “business struggles”.
They said that shutting Potager’s doors was an “incredibly difficult decision” to make.
This was before adding that they “simply can’t continue any longer” after battling for the “last two years to keep going”.
The owners also thanked their “lovely” customers and their “hardest-working” staff and suppliers.
You can read the emotional statement right here:
“We have made the incredibly difficult decision to close our restaurant. We have battled for the last two years to keep going. However, we simply can’t continue any longer.
“We have had the most wonderful times over the past almost 6 years. We have made great friends and have had the privilege of meeting some of the most lovely customers, who we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts.
“Looking after all of you never felt like work and made the business struggles disappear as soon as you all walked through the door.
“As for our staff over the years, we have been so lucky to have some of the hardest working, best spirited, and loveliest people on the planet working in Potager all of whom helped to make it the special place was.
“Lastly our suppliers, some of the most amazing hard working people you will ever meet. Thank you all, we will miss you.”
According to an RTÉ Prime Time report this week, more than 600 restaurants have closed their doors in Ireland in the last year and its projected that over 1,000 more will shut in the next year.
Speaking on the programme, chef and co-owner of Galway restaurant Cava Bodega, J.P. McMahon, said that the economics of the restaurant industry have changed – making it difficult for businesses to survive.
“I think we’re in a perfect storm due to a number of events, Covid being the main one,” he said.
“It’s almost like that the price of food has become uncoupled with what you’re charging. It doesn’t really have any relationship anymore because the labour is so expensive, because energy is so expensive, rates, whatever else.
“You almost discount the price of the food. You go: ‘It’s irrelevant’.”
As restaurants continue to close across the country, Michelin star chef @mistereatgalway tells @ConorWilson that the economics of the industry have changed, making it difficult for businesses to survive.
— RTÉ Prime Time (@RTE_PrimeTime) October 31, 2024
WATCH: @rtenews | #rtept pic.twitter.com/U2W2la3D0u
Main image Instagram/Potager
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