Court appoints interim examiner to well-known Dublin restaurant

THRIVE RESTAURANTS, the company behind Locks Restaurant in Portobello on Dublin’s south side, is seeking protection from its creditors and a new investor to keep the restaurant trading.

The High Court yesterday appointed an interim examiner, Anthony Weldon of Kieran Kelly Co chartered accountants, to the company, which closed to customers last Wednesday.

However, the directors of the company, well-known Dublin restaurateurs Teresa Carr and Kelvin Rynhart, expect to reopen the restaurant tomorrow and to continue to trade profitably while under court protection.

Acting for the company, barrister Garret Byrne told the court that, despite historic trading difficulties, including significant staffing costs and other overheads, the company had made cost savings over the past eight months and had started to trade profitably.

Mr Justice Hedigan yesterday adjourned the petition for further consideration by the court to next Tuesday. Barry Lyons, of Lyons Kenny, the solicitor for Thrive, said the company’s liabilities exceeded €800,000 on a wind-up basis but, as a going concern, its liabilities were just €370,000.

The difference is largely made up of costs incurred when Ms Carr and Mr Rynhart, a husband-and-wife team, took over the operation of Locks Restaurant in 2007 and found that the building was in worse condition than they had expected. This led to high refurbishment costs at the height of the construction boom.

Mr Lyons said that since the company had cut its costs in November 2008, it had traded profitably in most months, the exceptions being January and July. These are typically slow months for the restaurant industry.

The company is confident that it can attract an investor to get its business back on track, notwithstanding the difficulties in the sector.

“If it gets the investment, it will succeed,” Mr Lyons said.

Thrive Restaurants was incorporated two years ago, after Ms Carr and Mr Rynhart bought the leasehold interest and took over the operation of Locks in partnership with head chef Troy Maguire, who made his name at L’Gueuleton.

Ms Carr is formerly a front-of-house manager at Chapter One and La Stampa, while Mr Rynhart previously worked for the Bang Café.

Locks Restaurant originally opened in the early 1980s and was named after its location close to the seventh lock of the Grand Canal.