A popular Dundee restaurant which suddenly closed under a cloud of controversy will soon open again under new management.
The restaurant at 2-8 Perth Road, which had been operating as the Meat House Bar & Restaurant, will reopen “within the next month” according to the building’s owner Joseph McConville after the council’s licensing board approved the application.
The restaurant closed without notice at the end of January with staff owed almost £70,000 in unpaid wages after the operating company, run by Dundee local Candice Hickey, was put into liquidation.
Mr McConville himself was owed £33,557 with a bill of £77,235 due to suppliers and a further £119,799 unpaid to the taxman.
It is believed much of the money owed has now been repaid.
Speaking after the licensing board meeting, Mr McConville said the closure of the restaurant had been “regretful” and was an “unusual situation”.
He said: “It’s delicate but I expect the restaurant to reopen within the next month.
“The main thing was to get this licence and now we can move forward.
“We were very much regretful about the previous operators going into liquidation.
“It was a very unusual situation. I don’t think it was very much the lack of trade. It was other matters I can’t really comment on.
“I was one of the largest creditors in terms of rent I was owed. I do believe the people who were there before had the best interests of Dundee at heart.
“I think that the staff were paid in the end but that’s not something I know too much about.”
The application had been objected to by the West End Community Council, who feared the outlet would be reopened as a bar rather than a restaurant.
However, the local area representatives dropped the objection after receiving assurances that the restaurant would continue as it was previously.
The board confirmed the licence granted is exactly the same as the one previously held for the Meat House.
It is not yet clear who the new operators are or whether the restaurant will continue under the same name.
