No Eden for Bourke’s diner
‘If a new restaurant opens and I’ve not been paid, I’m picketing outside,’ warns angry creditor
CONTROVERSIAL restaurateur Jay Bourke is to open another diner – and walk straight into another storm.
Located just off Dublin’s Grafton Street and unnamed as yet, the venue – which Mr Bourke has been working on since September – is to open next month.
But those hoping to eat at the new spot on South Anne Street may have to cross a picket line to do so.
The news that Mr Bourke is starting a new business has enraged one creditor who claims he is owed a significant amount of money by a company that the self-styled ‘entertainment entrepreneur’ co-owns.
Jim Mulchrone installed a water mains system at the boutique Bellinter House Hotel in Co. Meath. The hotel’s parent firm, Bellinter House Ltd, went into liquidation in May 2010 with debts of €3.5million, including an estimated €400,000 to traders for work completed there.
Mr Bourke insisted last night that Mr Mulchrone ‘will get his money’ but the Meath businessman said: ‘I’m sick and tired of the promises. If Mr Bourke has enough money to open a restaurant, he has enough to pay me what he owes.’
He added: ‘I want my money. It’s as simple as that. If that restaurant opens and I still haven’t been paid what I’m owed, I will be launching a picket outside.’
Worryingly for Mr Bourke, Mr Mulchrone also said he could disconnect the water at Bellinter House.
He said: ‘I put in the pipes, and I can take them back as they still haven’t all been paid for.’
Mr Bourke said: ‘He won’t do that. There are 60 people employed at that hotel. What’s the point in doing that? Let’s all shoot each other? I don’t want to talk about this. [He’ll be paid] as soon as we can.’
He added: ‘I don’t want to be pilloried as someone who doesn’t pay bills. I’ve been in business 20 years, I’ve created thousands of jobs and built lots of places. I’m a good employer. I’m not in Nama. I’m just a small businessman trying to get on.
‘He was paid almost all the money he was owed. We are doing our best to pay him inch by inch. Without irony, he added: ‘Remember this is an economy where small businesses have no access to cash.’
The prospect of a picket being mounted outside his new venture is the latest in a string of controversies that have dogged Mr Bourke.
The 45-year-old has had on-off disputes with Temple Bar Cultural Trust, landlord of his Eden restaurant on Meeting House Square, over rent. Last November, he was forced to shut down his Shebeen Chic pub in Dublin, after a conflict about rent with another set of landlords.
In 2006 Mr Bourke was a guru on RTÉ’s Mentor show, giving advice to small firms. His own businesses have suffered mixed fortunes since.
His Globe bar and RiRa club were sold in Dublin at about €7million in 2006. He owns Eden and Pyg restaurants in Dublin, Cafe Bar Deli in Cork and four Dublin pubs.
Mr Bourke said the new venue would be ‘a short- order version of Eden... a value version of Eden’.