{"id":39071,"date":"2025-09-23T17:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/39071\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T17:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:31:08","slug":"big-mikes-restaurant-in-blackrock-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/39071\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Mike’s restaurant in Blackrock to close"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Restauranteur<\/p>\n

Restauranteur and chef ‘Gaz’ Smith has previously spoken of the financial difficulties faced by his restaurants<\/p>\n

A popular South Dublin restaurant has announced their closure on a social media post this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Big Mike\u2019s of Blackrock, has said that their last service was on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“This is one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever had to write,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n

“We shot for the stars, poured everything into it \u2013 heart, soul, sweat, tears, life savings, even the house deposit,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Restaurateur and chef Gareth \u2018Gaz\u2019 Smith who is the owner of Big Mike\u2019s, has previously spoken about the level of sacrifice and investment he made in order to finance the running of his restaurant.<\/p>\n

In the post, Big Mike\u2019s said: \u201cThe brutal truth is the maths just don\u2019t math anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry is facing insurmountable challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave it our very best<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of my team, grateful to our guests, suppliers and FWBs all of whom have been incredibly understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy final act as gaffer is to go to bat for my staff so they land safely in new homes and ensure they are fully supported. Many of them have been with me a long time and I\u2019m determined to assist them moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve written a full note with all the details \u2014 regarding vouchers, reservations, a heartfelt thanks and what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July 2024, Mr Smith confirmed the closure of his Mount Merrion-based restaurant Michael\u2019s in order to concentrate his business on Big Mike\u2019s, with staff from Michael\u2019s taking up positions at the Blackrock location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Restauranteur and chef ‘Gaz’ Smith has previously spoken of the financial difficulties faced by his restaurants A popular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,898],"class_list":{"0":"post-39071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}