Chef Dylan McGrath has shut down two of his Dublin restaurants on Thursday without notice.
Rustic Stone and Brasserie Sixty6, both of which are located on South Great Georges Street, will close with immediate effect. However, Mr McGrath’s other eatery, Fade Street Social, on nearby Fade Street, will remain open.
Brasserie Sixty6, which could accommodate 220 people, had been open for 25 years, with the 120-seat Rustic Stone open since 2010.
In a note on the website of Rustic Stone, Mr McGrath said it was “hard to put into words what had happened to restaurants and the city centre over the past four years”.
“As you know, the hospitality industry has faced many challenges in recent years due to rising costs and economic pressures,” Brasserie Sixty6 said in an email to customers who had bookings at the restaurant. “We’ve made the very difficult decision to close Brasserie Sixty6 and Rustic Stone effective today, 15th of August 2024.
“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 any more.”
A version of the message also appears on each restaurant’s website. It said that one of the restaurants’ “events team” would be in touch over the coming days with people who have bookings at either restaurant. It also directed intending diners to Mr McGrath’s nearby Fade Street Social venue, which remains open.
Mr McGrath’s team said they would try to transfer any Christmas bookings to Fade Street Social which can accommodate 340 diners and on which Mr McGrath signed a 20-year lease in April last year.
The companies behind both Rustic Stone and Brasserie Sixty6 availed of the Government’s small companies administrative rescue process (Scarp) two years ago to restructure their debts. Prime Steak – the company behind Rustic Stone – exited that process with about €2.25 million of debt reported to have been written down, just over half of it owed to the company behind Fade Street Social. Home RBVR, which runs Brasserie Sixty6, only exited Scarp last September after a court hearing was required to overcome objections to its rescue plan.
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“No doubt we will miss the restaurants, but selling on the leases and concentrating on Fade Street Social currently is what’s needed. We wish the new occupiers all the success for the future,” Mr McGrath said in a note on the restaurant’s website. “For all the great people who have worked with us over the years, that came and trained with us, that became better, and made us better, we want to say thank you.”
Mr McGrath rose to prominence as head chef at Mint, in Ranelagh, where he received a Michelin star. Following its closure in the recession triggered by the 2008 financial crash, he opened Rustic Stone in August 2010 and subsequently expanded his portfolio. He is the 50 per cent owner of Brasserie Sixty6 alongside business partner Vincent Melinn and sole owner of the Rustic Stone, according to documents filed with Companies Office.
Mr McGrath is familiar to TV audiences, appearing in a number of cookery programmes down the years, including Masterchef, Pressure Cooker and, most recently, Dylan McGrath’s Secret Service.
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