Chain confirms closure of seafood restaurant in city

A RESTAURANT housed in a famous Bristol building has closed permanently.

Loch Fyne is owned by the Greene King pub group, which earlier this week announced it will not reopen 79 of its sites across the UK – including 11 branches of the seafood restaurant chain.

Greene King has confirmed that the group’s restaurant in The Old Granary, Welsh Back, is one of the 11 that will not reopen.

A Loch Fyne spokesperson said: “It is always a difficult decision to close a restaurant and we are working with our Bristol team to try to find them alternative roles in the area.

“We would like to thank all our customers who have visited us over the years.”

Alarm bells started ringing when Loch Fyne reopened eight of its restaurants across the UK in July, while its Bristol site remained boarded up.

Greene King said it is “not issuing a list of impacted sites currently”, but the announcement concerns pubs and restaurants that have not not reopened since lockdown and not sites currently trading.

A spokesperson for the company said: “We have made the difficult decision not to reopen 79 sites, including the 11 Loch Fyne restaurants we announced last week.

“Around one-third will be closed permanently and we hope to be able to reopen the others in the future.”

The spokesperson added that the Government needs to “step in and provide tailored support to help the sector get through to the spring and prevent further pub closures and job losses”.