City Winery Brisbane, Ardo’s: Restaurants suddenly shut doors, enter liquidation

City Winery brisbane Pty Ltd on Wednesday made the decision to enter voluntary liquidation, closing all venues across Queensland’s capital city.

Just five years after opening its first venue, all restaurants have now closed including its Fortitude Valley and Edward St locations, as well as Ardo’s locations at Newstead, Milton, Hawthorne and Graceville.

City Winery CEO Dave Cush said the rising cost-of-living crisis, as well sa the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic led to the company’s demise.

Mr Cush said he was “heartbroken” to make the “incredibly difficult decision”.

“A drastic drop in consumer spending fuelled by the current cost of living and interest rate environment, coupled with increases in labour and operational costs, have all had too great of a compounding impact on our business, along with the historical effects of Covid and lockdowns, for us to continue to operate,” he said.

Mr Cush said the recent opening of The Star was the “final nail”.“We simply cannot compete with an operation of that scale,” he said.

It is understood a number of staff have been terminated.

Darren Vardy from Insolvency Options Pty Ltd has…