In recent years, no. 50 Whiteladies Road has seemed doomed – and has just claimed its latest casualty, as Pintxo has closed its Bristol restaurant just nine months after first opening its doors.
Formerly home to Polpo, which lasted just 18 months, the premises now shows no signs of life, with the Pintxo team having served their final tapas and sherry orders on Saturday, February 2nd – and just as abruptly as their predecessors.
There was no mention of the closure on social media prior to the doors being locked – but the website is down to just a holding page.
The couple behind Pintxo – Mark and Teresa – opened their original Pintxo restaurant in Fowey, Cornwall, in March 2016, followed by their Bath restaurant – which replaced Bistro La Barrique – in May 2017. Both of those are still going strong – so why has the Bristol restaurant mysteriously disappeared?
A phone call to the Bath restaurant revealed that Whiteladies Road simply wasn’t the right area for the restaurant – and with Rosa Tapas just over the road having closed only a month or so beforehand, it’s clear that something’s amiss.
What is that something? Well, with the former Rosa Tapas premises listed at a price of £95,000 p/a leasehold and the nearby former Be. in Bristol at a whopping £132,000 p/a leasehold, it’s going to be a stretch for any brand new business to take on a Whiteladies Road property with no guarantee that it will be a success…