Nicola Horlick Still Plans To Open Restaurant In Chiswick
City superwoman will go ahead with new venture despite closure in Barnes
City ''superwoman' Nicola Horlick still intends to open a new restaurant in Chiswick next month, despite the closure of her Georgina's restaurant in Barnes.
The new restaurant, to be called Times Place Brasserie should open in mid-February, she told chiswickw4.com and she will shortly be revealing the location. She is hoping to be open for Valentine's Day.
She blamed the closure of the Barnes restaurant, which had been open 18 months, on excessively high business rates and council tax. One newspaper quoted Ms Horlick as saying that another reason was that the area was " full of mothers with children who don't go out much at night" and it needed more trade at night.
Well-known Chiswick restaurateur Sam Harrison commented: "I was surprised by Nicola Horlick's comments as I would imagine that the clientele of Chiswick and Barnes are very similar and as far as I am aware the rents and therefore business rates, would be almost identical- if anything they may be higher in Chiswick".
Following her comments a number of Barnes residents were quoted as saying that Georgina's closed because it was too expensive. One woman said it had no atmosphere". Louisa Platt was quoted in the Evening Standard as saying; "There are plenty of other restaurants in Barnes that are always busy and are really good" Another local mother said Georgina's had been "overpriced" and when it opened had charged £3 for a croissant. But Nicola Horlick said that she had not intended to criticise any mothers- she is a mother of six herself.
"I'm not trying to be rude about anybody." Her decision to move from Barnes to Chiswick was a purely commercial one, she said. Barnes was more of a daytime destination which limited alcohol sales, there was a low football and expensive rents and council tax.
The former hedge-fund manager's plan is to take over an existing profitable restaurant site and last November she turned to crowdfunding site Seedrs to raise the sum of £150,000 for a French-style brasserie at a mystery location in Chiswick. Investors put up sums starting from as little as £10 - one of the benefits being that shareholders will get a 20% discount off the food bill.
Ms. Horlick told chiswickw4.com that the legals were currently being sorted out for the new venture.
She is hoping to be open for Valentine's Day and has a team of six chefs ready, according to one report.
The restaurant in question is currently making a profit of around £5,000 per month and the deal negotiated is for a price of £110,000 to take the site on and pay £40,000 for the kitchen equipment, chairs, tables, wine stocks etc.
The website for Times Place Brasserie states that it is in an area where there is a large residential population, but there are also offices nearby providing the opportunity to develop the lunchtime trade.
"The restaurant has a brunch trade at weekends, but we believe that this can be developed further. There is a garden at the back of the restaurant, which is not currently used and we will be investigating the potential to make use of this during the summer months."
January 9, 2014