Owner fuming over closure of restaurant

THE owner of a fine dining restaurant in Henley which has closed says he wishes he had never opened it.

Luke Garnsworthy, who opened Crockers Henley in Market Place in 2020, blamed financial difficulties and a lack of customers for the demise of the business, which included a small hotel. A second branch in Tring, which opened in 2018, is going through the liquidation process and will be sold.

Mr Garnsworthy, 37, who started the business eight years ago, said he and his team had done everything they could and he now felt “completely disillusioned”. I should have called it a day in Henley during the first lockdown, or never opened at all,” he said. “I thought it was a great opportunity but more fool us.

“I don’t regret pursuing Henley but I could have closed before the business got buried in debt.”

He blamed the closure on “a combination of everything” but said Henley diners were disrespectful and unwilling to pay for quality. Mr Garnsworthy said: “Henley is the most demanding market I have ever worked in. There is clearly money to be spent but it is too hard to appease customers so we had no choice in the end.

“I don’t think I would ever do fine dining in Henley again. There is potentially a market for it but the perceptions and expectations of what that involves are very different than it is in Tring.

“People won’t pay for fine dining but restaurants like Côte Brasserie do really well here.

“I have never been so badly disrespected as I was in Henley. The amount of racist bile my staff received was atrocious. Henley is 60 years out of date.

“People also do not respect what we do — you could spend £200 and have an amazing time for four hours.

“People wouldn’t blink about paying that much to get a tyre changed but won’t spend money on great food and wine.

“I got so many complaints about the price of my wine list but we benchmark it locally. It costs the same as Tom Kerridge’s wine list [in Marlow].

“One unexpected thing I encountered was that I thought it was an amazing place for all the festivals and the royal regatta.

“However, every festival had a negative effect on us. I thought we would make a decent amount of money but whether people stayed by the river or ignored the town centre, it was very quiet and no busier than usual.”

Mr Garnsworthy, who lives in Leighton Buzzard, had no prior connection to Henley when he decided to take over the former Loch Fyne restaurant and Milsom Hotel.

He said: “I looked at a place in Marlow as well but Tom Kerridge basically owns that town, so I didn’t see any point. I did my research about the demographic and market in Henley and it seemed like a great place. Henley is an amazing town but it was not the right fit for us.”

Mr Garnsworthy stressed that the covid pandemic had a huge impact on the business. The restaurant tried to save money by reducing its dining options and offering takeaways.

Mr Garnsworthy said: “If not for the pandemic, there is a good chance we would have stayed open. People’s habits have changed because of it and it ended up being a never-ending cascade of s***, especially with the cost of living crisis.”

“We were due to open three weeks after the first lockdown so we didn’t exist for the council and the Government and received no financial support.

“With all the stopping and starting from the various lockdowns and the tier system, it was really hard to build a reputation.

“We had to do whatever we could to bring money into the till. We did takeaways and people came in just for coffee, which is not really what we do.

“We made lots of changes before closing. We increased the à la carte menu and cut costs but inflation was up by 50 per cent in hospitality and it is hard to cut costs while maintaining the value of the menu.

“At the end only a third of the business was open and just the à la carte menu. It is the director’s responsibility to say enough is enough and close.

“We were in so much debt and we kept hoping that one day things would be better but we just were not busy enough.”

The restaurant previously had a concept called “chef’s table”, in which customers could watch their food being prepared but this ended in September.

Head chef Alex Payne and his team then left.

Mr Garnsworthy said: “He felt it was the best option for him to win his much-coveted Michelin star.”

Crockers had 12 staff at the end, all of whom have been made redundant.

Mr Garnsworthy said: “A couple may move to the branch in Tring but I have no concerns about whether they will find another job as it is a good time to look for a job in hospitality — there are a lot of vacancies.”

Crockers was owned by Unique Dining, of which Mr Garnsworthy is chief executive. However, he doubts the company will be running for much longer.

He said: “I have had enough. The last three years have been so brutal. My mental health is in tatters.

“Hospitality is too hard in this country as it is, let alone during the covid pandemic. I am going to take a few months off, retrain in tech and work in software engineering.

“Four generations of my family have worked in hospitality. Crockers was actually the name of my mum and dad’s restaurant.

“But this is it for me. Hospitality is too hard. The hours and commute are too long.

“I am married and have two children, a two-and-a-half-year-old and a six-week-old baby. I need to be there for them and not be so stressed.

“I feel relief, but I am also absolutely gutted.”