Hamilton restaurant Greg's Steakhouse is to close on Friday.

Co-owner Greg Wilson said the slowdown in business during the economic downturn had made it unfeasible to continue.

The eatery at the corner of Church and Parliament Street opened at its present venue in January 2007.

Its last operational day will be Thursday this week and it will officially close the following day, Mr. Wilson said.

"We have decided to close," Mr. Wilson told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

"Because the economy is certainly not improving and because the operational expenses in the City of Hamilton are outstanding, there is no way we can continue."

He said all of the full-time employees on the restaurant's all-Bermudian staff had already left. He did not state how many employees the restaurant had.

Mr. Wilson, who runs the business with co-owner Colin Lloyd, moved to the current site nearly four years ago, after operating a restaurant of the same name at Port Royal Golf Course in Southampton from 2002.

The slowdown in custom was "a sign of the times", Mr. Wilson said, and he knew that many other small businesses in Hamilton were feeling the pinch right now too.

He had no regrets.

"We've had a fabulous time over the past ten years," Mr. Wilson said. "We've enjoyed what we made, we've made great friends and had some excellent customers. We are proud of what we managed to do.

"We'd just like to thank our customers for really giving us some good support. I'm going to miss Greg's Steakhouse and its food.

"Hopefully, at some point in the future, if things improve, then we should be in a position to maybe reopen in a different location."

Mr. Wilson said the restaurant had been put up for sale. He said he was now looking at various other business options.