A Dublin restaurant owned by the star of RTÉ Masterchef has suddenly shut
Avenue by Nick Munier in Temple Bar had accumulated losses of €250,000.
A DUBLIN RESTAURANT owned by well-known restaurateur Nick Munier shut its doors last week and has now closed.
Avenue by Nick Munier, based in Temple Bar, announced last week that it is shutting up shop.
Nick Munier is well-known for his role as the maitre’d on the UK reality cooking show Hell’s Kitchen and for co-hosting the Irish version of Masterchef on RTÉ with Dylan McGrath.
He has also held senior roles in some of the country’s best-known establishments, such as the K Club, and in 2009 set up his own restaurant called Pichet in Dublin.
Munier sold his stake in Pichet in 2014 and then set up another restaurant, Avenue by Nick Munier, which started trading early in 2015.
Closed
A statement on Avenue’s website said that the establishment has stopped trading.
“The management and staff would like to thank our valued customers for all their support over the past two years,” it said.
“Unfortunately we have been left with no option but to close. Both Nick and Alanna (Feeney, the manager) would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to you and wish to extend our sincere thanks for all your support of the business to date.”
The statement did not detail why the restaurant closed.
Nick Munier
Several companies owned by Munier list accounting firm L’Estrange & Co as their point of contact.
Fora contacted L’Estrange & Co, which said it would pass on a request for information to Munier. There was no response at the time of publication.
Avenue
Avenue opened to largely positive reviews in April 2015, however its head chef left after just six weeks.
Accounts for Munier Ltd, the holding company for the restaurant, had accumulated losses of about €250,000 for the period between its establishment in October 2014 to the end of last September.
Losses are not unusual in a restaurant’s early days of trading. More recent accounts have not yet been filed.
Some 26 people were employed by restaurant during its 2015 financial year.
The directors, which included Munier, did not take a salary and loaned almost €200,000 to the business, of which €81,000 was repaid at the end of the period.
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