In November 2023, we mentioned that Cara’s Bar was about to open at the Clwyd Gate restaurant site. That seems to have gone quiet.
The former motel (now Clwyd Gate Manor) trades. Highland Cottages were built to add additional holiday accommodation but that proved ill advised and all are now in private hands as private dwellings. The restaurant is currently for sale (again)
The venue is described as ‘outstanding’, ‘magnificent’ and a ‘truly unique restaurant bar’. And so it is. Except over the last 20 years it as never really attracted many paying customers.
There remain memories of good times at the Clwyd Gate. Looking at it from a hard-nosed business perspective, the access is substandard, car park’s small and the location though great for its views is isolated. It’s too big to be an intimate venue and too small to be of interest to one of the new breed of gastro-pub chains. It’s perhaps time to repeat what we said in November 2023:
‘It's easy to get carried away on waves of nostalgia. Could the reality be different for any new business opening there? There have been several reasons why the place has been hard to let. It's idyllic location works both for and against it: great views but on the fringes of Rhuthun/Ruthin and arguably too far from Yr Wyddgrug/Mold. People seem less prepared to travel for food these days. We're in an era when there's very little money around. And, of course, it's been closed most recently more often than open.’
If only the former motel (which is trading) and the restaurant could again come under one management there might at least be a market for wedding receptions.
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Unusual in property sales, the vendor’s agent offers a shopping basket function. So, presumably , if you have a spare £525,000 and a Pay Pal account, with one click, you can add this to your basket...
Other than that, perhaps it’s time to hand over the keys to someone who wants a large private house in the countryside.
Tags:
Pubs