Five years after the restaurant was saved from bankruptcy, a huge celebrity chef and BBC icon will have to close the doors.
Marlborough residents are saying goodbye to a swanky restaurant belonging to a celebrity chef and BBC icon. This comes only five years after the restaurant celebrated being saved from closure by a rent reduction.
Rick Stein has multiple restaurants in the UK and Australia. One such eatery, located in a Grade II listed building in Marlborough, Wiltshire, is set to go under. The restaurant chain have said they hope a closure can be avoided but are considering shutting the site down for good following poor performance.
We are recommending the closing of our Marlborough restaurant, and we are consulting with the team to see if this can be avoided, according to a restaurant spokesperson. Our other restaurants and rooms continue to sell well, but this particular website hasn’t provided the same level of revenue.
This might be a familiar tale for many Rick Stein Marlborough employees. 39 of the same restaurant’s employees were given notice five years ago, but the same restaurant only agreed to give them their jobs back after a 25% rent reduction.
I had given in to losing the restaurant and our wonderful staff, and Rick said, “I’m delighted that our landlord in Marlborough made such a generous offer,” and I’m so happy that the restaurant can reopen.
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With his ex-wife Jill, his children Jack, Charlie, and Ed, Rick co-owns the restaurant chain. Jill stated: “I think it is such a wonderful site in a beautiful market town.” She continued to claim that she felt “relieved” to reopen.
The restaurant remained struggling despite the rent reduction. Stein’s Trading Limited and his restaurant in Padstow both reported losses in accounts filed with Companies House on September 23.
Rick’s restaurants are not the only ones to be suffering. Last month, Channel 4 chef Dom Taylor announced he is closing his Caribbean restaurant, Marvee’s Food Shop, due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
There are a lot of TV credits for the chef. In Keith Floyd’s 1985 television series Floyd on Fish, he first made his first guest appearance on screen, and he later received the opportunity to present his own series, which included Rick Stein’s Taste of the Sea and Food Heroes.
He was also the author of several cookbooks and received an OBE in 2003. 2018 saw the release of a CBE for services to the economy.
Source: Mirror
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