La Mere Zou closed :-(

Flappy Head

Voicemail when I called saying they're closed permanently. Real shame. Loved that place for years.

Faith

Mod note: Moved to Dublin City forum.

whiskeyman

One of the older restaurants? Been there for as long as I remember. edit - just checked website - onen for 22 years!
Personally, I didn't think much of it. I think I had a bad experience but always meant to give it a second chance as I knew others who loved it.
Can't complete with many of the others out there I guess... rent / rates probably killed it off.
Chez Max had taken the 'French bistro' market for many.
I'd highly recommend the Blackboard Bistro if you want good French inspired food:
http://theblackboardbistro.ie/dinner-in-dublin/

mvron

Am truly sorry to read that they're closed.
We never had a poor dining experience there and it will be a real loss to my family as we visited it regularly.

coffeepls

That's a shame. Nice place.

RupertsHabit

whoa, had more than 1 meal there. shame.

Civil Joe

Confirmed on its website also. Bad news.

Dave_The_Sheep

mvron wrote: »

Am truly sorry to read that they're closed.
We never had a poor dining experience there

This is the thing. I've been there a dozen, two dozen times over the past 10 years and I never once had a bad experience. Very good food, very good service. Most places, you might have a bad meal every once in a while. This place I never did.

Does anyone know why? Out of business, or just the owner retiring (after 22 years, that's fair enough)?

Probably the only place in town I'd feel a little pang that it's closed.

whiskeyman

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Does anyone know why? Out of business, or just the owner retiring (after 22 years, that's fair enough)?

I would say out of business.
Rents for such a prime location probably ultimately forced them out.
It's hard to complete among a lot more 'trendier' restaurants that are exploding all around the city.
I also saw them often on groupon deals etc... recently.

L1011

Creditors meeting called so it went under

Dave_The_Sheep

whiskeyman wrote: »

It's hard to complete among a lot more 'trendier' restaurants that are exploding all around the city.

Trendier, and ****tier. Well, that's a right shame.

Chez Max had taken the 'French bistro' market for many.

Chez Max was good a few years ago, but it's been going downhill for a while now. They've a few solid staple dishes, Moules Frites being one of them, but the rest isn't spectacular. It's decent value, good atmosphere, but the quality of the food has been dropping. Used to be that nearly all the experiences would be good, and now it's down to about half are good, the rest are just average.

Hanley

whiskeyman wrote: »

I would say out of business.
Rents for such a prime location probably ultimately forced them out.
It's hard to complete among a lot more 'trendier' restaurants that are exploding all around the city.
I also saw them often on groupon deals etc... recently.

On this...

How the f*ck are those places paying for fit outs and op costs?

Seems to be a lot of highly stylized places popping up in prime locations and I've no idea how they're being financed. They don't seem to be busy enough or around long enough to pay for themselves.

Are they being opened with someone elses money?

Are they actually profitable?

Are they killing established restaurants?

...and if so what's gonna happen when those ones keep losing moeny and eventually close!?

JohnFalstaff

Very sorry to see this gone, was a favourite local spot. Hopefully Eric finds somewhere new.

Squire Ladd

Oh ? What was the story here ?

Confucius say

That "Porn Dog" place seems to be gone too. It lasted all of a few months. I really wonder who puts money into these things. It was clear to me from the start that this place would fail, and I have one year of college in Economics and no experience with running a business. It's such a fickle industry.
How are people so stupid/brave with these enterprises?
There's a juice type bar thing on Dawson St that sells juice/health food for extortionate prices that opened a few months ago. I guarantee you it's gone by the end of summer.