Point of no return
TV chef’s fury as he’s forced to tell customers: I can’t open
A TOP restaurateur who vowed to reopen for indoor dining tomorrow has backed down.
Paul Treyvaud said he was forced into abandoning his pledge over fears his customers would be hit with €2,000 fines.
The TV chef hit out at the “bullies” as locals in Killarney, Co Kerry, held a protest in solidarity with business owners.
Treyvaud said: “I had to tell my customers, I couldn’t put it on them. I’ve never been this angry in my life.”
“I’M far from a bluffer,” fumes celeb chef Paul Treyvaud – who hit the headlines this week when he told his 10.7k Twitter followers he would flout Government rules on indoor dining and open his restaurant on July 5.
“Do you know what a bully does – every day, you walk into school and the bully takes the money off you and hits you a dig. Then one day the guy knows he’s getting a dig anyway and says ‘Eff off ’. “
Paul had 40 bookings for his ‘Eff Off ’ opening tomorrow but today, sitting at one of six tables outside his empty 20-year-old restaurant Treyvaud’s, on Killarney Main Street, he admits he’s had to change tack.
“I had a whisper in my ear telling me I’d be made an example of and that’s fine by me but I also heard so would my customers,” he reveals. “I can’t have someone come in for a steak and get slapped with a €2k fine. Nobody wants to do this more than me but it’s not worth it so I had to tell my customers, I couldn’t put it on them. I’ve never been this angry in my life.”
One local describes Paul Treyvaud as “Kerry’s Michael O’leary”.
“He’s some man for the publicity,” he says of Paul’s headline-grabbing Twitter tirades calling out the Government’s handling of the pandemic.
But this week there’s been a seachange in Killarney.
CLOSURES
Back in February, when Paul predicted many more months of closures unless restaurateurs rallied and stood up to Government, Paul says he was dismissed as ‘mad’. Not anymore. On Thursday, 70 frustrated locals staged a protest outside Killarney Town Hall to show solidarity with business owners and families left reeling since the plug was pulled on reopening indoors.
The tourist dollar is Killarney’s lifeblood and already this year it’s lost an estimated €400million.
Today there are queues of staycationers outside venues with outdoor areas and the streets are busy but many more venues remain shuttered – as unlike cities like Cork or Galway, the streetscape, one-way system and some say lack of county council planning here offer little scope or space for outdoor dining.
“Last year we were OK as we traded until mid-march, we had reserves then we got June, July and August – that gave a cushion. Now we’ve only had three months in 15, and we’re still stalled. There’s a big cash-flow problem coming.
“Anyone whose renting is in big trouble. Anyone with a mortgage dealing with the banks for the last four/five years, they’re in trouble. What about the rent that hasn’t been paid? They’re coming after them for that.”
On the day Government dropped the bombshell it would continue the indoor ban, Paul had 500 cancellations for July and the first two weeks of August. “We literally feel like we have a knee on our neck at the moment,” Paul told an Oireachtas Committee afterwards. Now he predicts a tsunami of cancellations at guesthouses and B&BS that might derail hopes for a staycation boom like the one that saved last summer. “When all the restaurants are booked up outdoors and you can’t go to dinner, will you come here for a holiday? Who wants pizza for dinner in your bedroom on holiday?
“I can’t serve you so from July 19, you can go to Farranfore, fly to Portugal instead, then come home with a new variant walk and by customers outside my restaurant.
“How are four walls safe 100 yards up the road in a hotel and not here?”
Right now hundreds of vacancies for catering staff remain unfilled in Killarney and Paul says hotels are poaching staff from small restaurants. “Any staff people kept until July 5 are now going to the hotels.”
Hotel restaurants have never been so busy, says fifth generation butcher
This has brought us way down. Mentally, it’s so draining DEIRDRE BROWNE, LEFT, MURPHY BROWNES
Denis Cronin. They are extra busy and I see that in the food orders, they’re really up. Patrons are eating two or three times a day inside instead of spreading dinners around the town. It’s very unfair on those closed.”
Tom Rohan, 35, came home from Australia after he inherited Flesk restaurant from his aunt. He thinks the real carnage is coming once emergency payments are cut. “It looks OK now but it’s all a false economy.”
He decided to serve drinks on the path outside his venue and the shuttered Paddy Wagon office next door.
With no rent or mortgage to pay, Tom’s not worried about surviving – but it’s a different story for chef Deirdre Browne, 39. She realised her lifelong dream when her name went over the door at Murphy Brownes four years ago. She redesigned the twostorey building and worked day and night with business partner Denis Murphy.
SPACE
Now she’s top of the Tripadvisor charts as the best restaurant in Killarney but has no outdoor space and doesn’t know if she’ll survive.
“We’ve been told if we go against rules and break the law, there’d be a black mark when renewing your licence. This is our trade and our life. This has brought us way down. Mentally, it’s so draining and it’s hard to be optimistic with so many roadblocks and no dates.”
Inside Paul’s restaurant door is his Wall Of Fame, featuring superstar customers like Denzel Washington, Peter Kay, Katie Taylor and The Coronas.
His agent is o nto to him about a new TV cooking show they’re pitching in the US and he chats to a friend about a protest in Dublin late next week.
Paul isn’t worried about survival – but he’s terrified for the future of his industry and its people. This is going to be absolute carnage. The recession will be nothing on what’s coming.
“I’ve had grown men on the phone to me in tears saying they’re about to end things.
“So many telling me they don’t see a way out of this. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Paul won’t be arrested tomorrow but he says: “Watch this space.”
“I said we’ll be open and we will be open on Monday. I have a plan for Monday. Let’s just say that people won’t be expecting this…”
It looks OK now but it’s all just a false economy TOM ROHAN ON END OF EMERGENCY PAYMENTS