business, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Bouquet Garni Cafe opened on March 21 under a licence obtained by three local businesswomen, Jeanette McGavern, Julie Grayston Smith and Melissa Ray.

But it closed its doors on Tuesday after alleged dwindling customer numbers made keeping the business open not a viable option.

The telephone number at Bouquet Garni is now out of service and the local catering service Bouquet Garni, which was in operation before the cafe opened, failed to return calls on the matter. The owner of the building was also not available for comment last night, but locals confirmed it had closed its doors on Tuesday.

The restaurant in Flatts had formerly been the Halfway House, but was transformed into a bistro-style eatery for the new venture.

There has been a restaurant on the site for 50 years, but the newly remodelled space had taken the place upmarket. When it opened it could seat 32 inside and 20 outside under new wooden umbrellas installed on the outside deck and promised a new kind of menu for Bermuda including Australasian food.

Halfway House had formerly been both a small restaurant and a take-away and had been run by Erroll Burgess for six years.

Under his management the restaurant had won many awards for both seafood and cod fish dishes, took several Best of Bermuda Gold Awards and was well-known for local food at reasonable prices.

In October last year he said he was closing up shop to take a break after working 18 hour days to keep the place open.

In February, the three businesswomen applied to transfer the liquor licence from Halfway House to Bouquet Garni, with Mrs, McGavern listed as the manager and opened the cafe in March.

But yesterday locals confirmed that the restaurant had been closed since Tuesday, the end of the month.