Town cocktail bar left high and dry by tenant

The St Peter Port venue was supposed to re-open on 4 January after a Christmas break, but the doors have remained shut and coats in the doorway are still hanging on their pegs.

The building, which is owned by the Liberation group, was leased to a Patrick Crowley, who also managed Two Cocktail Bar, which is still open, and Barbados, which closed last year.

Liberation Group operations manager Jo Skuse said the tenant gave the keys back through a third party and is believed to have left the island.

‘It has been closed since the weekend before New Year,’ she said.

‘But it was abandoned some time between Christmas and then.

‘The tenant was Patrick Crowley, he had been on the island for some years, but we believe he has gone back to Ireland.

‘We own the property but leased it out for him to manage.

Mrs Skuse said she was ‘just slightly’ annoyed by the circumstances.

‘When Barbados closed that was because our lease on the premises was up, but Laskas was still up and running,’ she said.

‘This does happen in the industry, but not too often in Guernsey.’

Mrs Skuse added that Laska normally closed over Christmas, so nobody thought anything of it not being open.

The last activity on the Laska Facebook pages was posted on 31 December and said: ‘We’ll be celebrating the New Year with our loved ones but we wanted to say thank you to everyone who made 2018 a special year for us here at Laska.

‘Cheers’ to you! Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve wherever you may be. We look forward to welcoming you back to Laska from the 4th January.’

Liberation Group is already receiving interest from people looking to lease the premises.