Leading Spanish restaurant group Bar 44 has announced that it is closing its original Cowbridge Bar 44 after 20 years of operation.
In a tweet, the South Wales-based business said: “We are devastated to have to tell you that we will be closing the Cowbridge Bar 44 with immediate effect.
“Our Cowbridge restaurant and bar has not been open since March 2020 due to the current two metre Covid restrictions in place.
“Our lease has now come to an end and it is just not the right business decision to sign a new lease without any end in sight to the relaxation of the social distancing Covid related rules in Wales, and the return to normal trading.”
All members of the team wishing to stay with the business have relocated to other sites within the group, the company has confirmed.
"We hope very much that it is goodbye for now and that we will be back in Cowbridge at some point very soon.”
The Bar 44 group also includes bars in Penarth and Cardiff, restaurant Asador 44 as well as a site in Bristol.
In January, Harpers caught up with Bar 44 Group’s co-owner Owen Morgan, a noted champion of sherry in the UK, following the business having launched its own own Manzanilla at the backend of last year.