A popular village restaurant and bar will be closing its doors for good after two years next month. Paul Taylor, who owns the Kingfisher Lodge in Sibthorpe, has announced "with a heavy heart and great sadness" that his business will shut permanently on February 6.
Mr Taylor said: "We have just been there two years and spent £45,000 on it and made it totally different to how we first started out, and we had a massive following from all the local people and all the fisherman. We did 70s nights and had live bands on, we had bouncy castles to keep the kids entertained, we had comedians, marine fish, then about 10 months ago we started pot painting activities."
Explaining the reason for the closure, he added: "The annoying part is that there are all these restaurants shutting down because they can't afford the electric bill, they can't afford this, can't afford that. Yet we were absolutely fine and had no problems in paying things and were making a good income out of it, but we were shut down through someone deciding that they don't want to renew the lease."
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Mr Taylor opened the business in January 2021 in the midst of Covid. He said: "We started doing takeaways, then when we could sit outside we did that, and then we fully reopened when we were allowed to." As Paul is turning 60 this year, he has no plans to start a new restaurant.
He owns a wedding car business and a caravan and motorhome rental business, but also hopes to continue the pot painting activities he started at the Kingfisher Lodge. Mr Taylor said: "I'm taking paint a pot with me when I shut down, as I've already had some enquiries to go to schools, nurseries and playgroups and do it there, so I'm going to try keep in the area to do that."
He described the whole experience as being "brilliant" and that he had never done anything like the restaurant in his life before. Mr Taylor said: "My dream was just to have a big front room that people could come in with their dogs and muddy boots and nobody really cared, and that's exactly how it felt.
"We did all these nice things for everyone - and it's great to see all the appreciation from everyone. It's great to see that we have done a good job to say that I have never done anything like this in my life before - it's pleasing to see that people have actually loved it."
Due to the closure of the business, Mr Taylor will be selling "every single thing in the place" which includes tables, outside furniture, fridges and marine tanks.
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