Owners of The Porch Restaurant on Front Street quietly closed their doors over the holiday season and are expected to finalise the sale of the business to the owners of Cafe Cairo tomorrow.

The Middle Eastern themed restaurant which opened at Industrial Road in Southampton in 2003 expects to open its Front Street doors in March.

The Porch Ltd., half owned by David Speakman and half owned by Reid Finance Ltd., a nominee company of law firm Appleby Spurling Hunter, purchased the Front Street bar and restaurant in August 1993.

For the twenty years prior to that date it was known as Rum Runners and owned by Roger Pedro and Ray DeSilva.

The closure of The Porch on December 23 came as a surprise to many customers who were greeted by a simple note at the door which informs of the closure and thanks customers for their support over the years.

When contacted yesterday, Mr. Speakman said: ?Everyone said ?you?ll be sorry when you have closed the door?.

?I said ?no it is a business thing?, we?ve gone onto other things.?

Mr. Speakman said while a decline in tourism has been a problem for everyone in the business, it did not factor into his decision to sell.

?Business at The Porch was fine. We did very well. We had a very loyal local clientele which kept us going year round. We never had to close (during the slow season) which was fine,? he said.

The Porch was one of many in Hamilton to bid farewell to a room full of gambling machines this summer after a Government ban came into effect. However, Mr. Speakman said that this loss also had little to do with his decision to move on.

?The machines helped when they were there, but on the other hand we survived before the machines and every restaurant in Bermuda has to survive now without machines so it was not a major factor,? he said.

?We have been there twelve years. It is a tough business doing day and night so someone else came long and said they would like a go so we are more than happy to let them. I can go back to working nine to five.?

Mr. Speakman now works full-time at the neighbouring Front Street ice cream parlour Bob Royle?s, which he co-owns with Kenny Rawlins. He said that The Porch?s seven other employees have already found alternative jobs or retired.

Barry Capuano of Capcar Enterprises who brokered the sale between The Porch Ltd. and owners of Cafe Cairo Frank Arnold and Amre Elsayed, said that the existing Cafe Cairo will open in the Hamilton space by mid-March.

?Cafe Cairo does very well in Southampton but it is so far out that if you bring it into town it should do very well,? he said.

Mr. Capuano was unwilling to disclose the price of the sale, but expects that it will be finalised tomorrow.

The Porch has already cleared out of the premises and renovation work for the new restaurant is expected to start next week and run through February.

Mr. Capuano said that while the new owners plan to open the space as soon as mid-March, the quest to find such a location took much longer.

?It has been a nightmare trying to find that spot,? Mr. Capuano said. ?We have been looking for that spot for about seven months, for any spot like that.?

Mr. Capuano said that finding space has difficult for many in the restaurant business. CapCar?s database currently holds the names of eight different people in the who are looking for similar locations as that secured by Cafe Cairo in Hamilton.

?If you can clone that spot for me I can sell that tomorrow,? Mr. Capuano said. ?I can rent it eight times over. That is the last porch on Front Street of that size and if you have a porch on Front Street you are going to be doing very well. That is what makes it very special.?