Mermaid, Gruel to let for 55% less

TWO of Dublin’s best known restaurants, the Mermaid Cafe and Gruel on Dame Street, Dublin 2, which closed last December in a protest over high rents, are to be offered to new traders at substantially lower terms.

Estate agent Conor Ó Cléirigh Company is now quoting a combined rent of €85,000 for the two premises – a long way short of the €190,000 charged up to Christmas for the two restaurants and spacious overhead accommodation.

New tenants will have the use of the ground floor restaurants which interconnect at the rear and and a substantial basement but will no longer have control of the five upper floors which are laid out mainly as offices and studios.

The decision by chefs Mark Harrell and Ben Gorman to close the two restaurants in the run-up to Christmas triggered widespread calls for the Government to ban upwards only rent reviews in existing leases. These clauses are already prohibited in new leases.

The two chefs said they had only been offered a “tiny” reduction on the €190,000 rent by their landlady – since identified as Lise Underwood, who inherited a huge portfolio of historic Georgian houses in Dublin from her father, the late Ivor Underwood.

Suzanne Angley of the Conor Ó Cléirigh agency said it had received more than 100 inquiries from restaurateurs, including a number of big names, since putting a “to let” board outside the Mermaid.

“I already showed the premises to 25 different people on Monday; it was just like old times – and I will be showing it again today and on Friday this week.”