One of Northern Ireland's favourite dog friendly coastal cafes is to close as pressures mount on the cost of living.
Molly Brown's Dog Friendly Tea Room on Portstewart Promenade will pull down the shutters on September 25 and a new business is lining up to move into the coveted spot on the sea front.
Owner Richard Stewart-Brown, 36, said the decision has been a tough one and confirmed the deciding factor came in the shape of a £4,000 electric bill for a 10 week period at the business.
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Richard explained: "We've had Molly Brown's as a family run business for four years and have had a wonderful time building up a dog friendly spot in Portstewart.
"But as we were working to recover from being shut in lockdown, we like everyone else, discovered that our costs had just exploded and in addition to that instead of being one of seven cafes on the promenade, we are now one of 17 on the road and that doesn't include other cafes in the town.
"The electric bill for two months and two weeks was £4,000 followed by a letter to say the prices were going up in August again and for us, as a small family run business, it was too much to handle.
"Over the last while we could see that our customers were feeling the pinch too, sharing adult meals, kiddies meals, ordering a glass of tap water instead of a can of pop and they were rightly budgeting. I could see people making decisions they wouldn't have thought about before, leaving out the little extras. It has been hard on everyone and we totally understand that coming out for a meal and coffees is still a luxury.
"I know myself what it costs to take our two daughters out for a breakfast and with toddlers sometimes there is a lot of waste, so we tended to go for picnics and snack stops that I pack myself because I know what they'll eat.
"And when you're standing in our cafe we can look out and see more and more people sitting in cars having home made picnics, multi packs of crisps and a flask of tea or coffee. People still want to get out for a nice day but where they're spending money has changed. No business can expect any family to go into debt or buy things they can't budget for just to help out. It's just not feasible.
"So we as a family felt it was time to look for a new start and hand over the lease of Molly Brown's spot to another company. We are really sad to be leaving but we feel if we don't do it now we will be hit by a massive amount of debt and maybe not be able to get out heads above water.
"Other bigger companies might manage better than us, but we can't take the chance and we know we can't beat circumstances that are outside of our control.
"We want to thank all of our staff and customers who helped make Molly Brown's what it has been and we are so sorry to have to say goodbye. But we have a few exiting new projects coming up in the next year and we are very excited for the new lease holders of 52 The Promenade who will be doing something really different.
"We have had an amazing 4 years on the promenade but we are very happy to move on and focus on our next business adventure. Without Molly Browns we wouldn’t have been able to do so many things like start our own family adopting Sophia and Amelia. It has been the most special time.
"So to each and every customer who supported us, thank you, thank you for all the cards and comments over the years. We will miss our regulars who have been so loyal over the years and we hope that they will visit us in our new business which we hope to launch in October."
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