Lenehans Bar & Grill – a swanky Rathmines eatery owned by husband and wife Fiona McHugh and Paul Byrne – has turned the company behind the restaurant and bar into a process under a new scheme to help face small businesses Seeking rescue contract after advisor appointed.Financial hardship.
According to an official announcement this week, OCC Corporate Solutions’ Padraic Bermingham has been appointed a process advisor to Josta, the company behind Lenehan’s Bar & Grill. Court Debt Restructuring for Viable Small Businesses.
McHugh and Byrne are best known as the founders of Fallon & Byrne, a famous food hall in the city center.
An examiner was appointed to Fallon & Byrne’s business in early 2012 after being unable to pay €1.4 million in taxes. Unknown to McHugh and Byrne, significant tax delinquencies had been accumulated by the business. The business ended his examinership in April of that year, with a business plan supported by virtually all creditors.
McHugh and Byrne ended their relationship with Fallon & Byrne in early 2020 following the controversial closure of a branch of Rathmines’ business.
The current Lenehans Bar & Grill opened in Fall 2019. It was just a few weeks before the sudden closing of the Fallon & Byrne store at the Swan Centre, just down the street.
On January 2, 2020, management abruptly closed the Fallon & Byrne Outlet at the Swan Center. It was reportedly owed €140,000 in rent and service fees to the center’s landlords, the Anderson family, who own the Omniplex cinema chain.
of independence on sunday reported that on New Year’s Eve 2019, just days before the store closed, Fallon & Byrne staff at Rathmines Outlets were asked to remove inventory and other accessories as part of a “deep cleaning.”
At the end of January 2020, McHugh and Byrne left the Fallon & Byrne business. A group of existing investors in the food company, led by Superquinn veteran Frank Murphy and restaurateur Brian Fallon (former chairman of the Irish Restaurant Association), have decided to open the main branch of the Exchequer Street chain in Dublin city centre. We have pledged further investments to expand.
Meanwhile, Josta, the company behind Lenehan’s Restaurants, is backed by investors such as Fionan McDonagh and Peter Costigan, a bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, through a retirement fund managed by Merion Stockbrokers.
Fiona McHugh and Paul Byrne own 90 percent of Josta and Peter Costigan owns 10 percent. Fionan McDonagh’s retirement fund is listed in company records as being charged to Fallon & Byrne’s premises in Exsheker Street, Dublin.
Records show that in 2018 a 25-year lease of the facility where Renehans was located was signed, costing €150,000 a year. The property is owned by Liam and Orla Lenehan from Rathgar. Mr. Lenehan is the former director of the Irish division of Savills Realtors.
