Cork's Boardwalk Bar and Grill forced to close after six years

Leading hoteliers John and Darina Gately have blamed the recession, office closures, and the decision on the location of Cork’s proposed events centre for the closure of their Boardwalk Bar and Grill venue.

The couple, who run the successful Montenotte Hotel on Cork’s northside, confirmed last night that their bar and restaurant on the city’s Lapp’s Quay has closed with immediate effect.

It is understood that KPMG has been appointed as liquidator to the business, which employed 24 people. The couple said they will redeploy 11 of the workers to their hotel, and their priority is to work with their contacts to find work for the others.

“Several of our friends in the hospitality industry have already been in touch and offered their help,” Ms Gately said.

Hoteliers Darina and John Gately.

The Boardwalk bar and its 90-seat restaurant opened six years ago as a joint venture between the Gatelys and broadcaster Neil Prendeville. The 8,000 sq ft ground-floor unit in the City Quarter office block underwent a €2m fit-out and opened amid a blaze of publicity in October 2008.

Mr Prendeville, who has a keen interest in food and cooking, said getting involved in the restaurant business was the realisation of a long-held ambition of his.

Reports at the time put its annual rent at €325,000 — almost €900 a day.

It quickly became one of Cork’s top venues, with its private party room in regular use for high-profile show-business events. At its peak, the business employed up to 50 people.

But Mr Prendeville’s involvement in the business ended in 2012 and the Gatelys rebranded the venue.

As the recession deepened, its opening hours were scaled back and the venue remained closed on Sundays.

It is understood that last month’s decision to build Cork’s event centre on South Main Street — and not on the competing site just across the river on Albert Quay — was the nail in its coffin.

“The Boardwalk was a great restaurant which we were very proud of. Unfortunately too many factors went against us in the past few years,” Ms Gately said.

“When we opened the business six years ago, we were optimistic for the future, but the last number of years were very tough on many levels. The recession hit and our location saw several buildings vacated so foot-fall for the past year has been down considerably.

“The crunch came when the new events centre was confirmed for South Main Street, and with over eight new restaurants opened in Cork in the last few months, the writing was on the wall for us.

“This is a traumatic time for all concerned.”

John Cleary Developments is building a major office block across the river which will ultimately employ up to 2,000 people.

Developer Owen O’Callaghan has also signalled his intention to develop an office block a few hundreds yards downstream on his site, which lost out to the South Main Street site for an events centre.