Adiós, Amigos: Las Iguanas Calls Last Orders
Nine years, one Lord Mayor, and a 4.7-star rating - yet another chain calls final orders in York.
Swinegate's Las Iguanas has shut for good - a handwritten sign in the window is the only explanation on offer.
"Closing down permanently. We apologise for any inconvenience."
It's a quiet end for a venue that opened about as loudly as a chain restaurant can. When Las Iguanas moved into the old La Tasca site in 2016, it arrived with dancing girls, free cocktails, and the Lord Mayor of York in attendance. Nine years on, it was still pulling a 4.7 out of 5 on TripAdvisor - good enough to earn a top-25 spot among the city's restaurants.
Las Iguanas has since confirmed the exact cause. The site's landlord served notice on the premises, ending the lease outright. In a statement, the company said it hoped to "return to York in the future".
Iguanas Holdings, which ran 44 branches nationally, went through a High Court-approved restructuring in June, the kind of deal companies use to avoid administration. Around £37 million in debt was wiped, and parent company Big Table Group (also behind Frankie & Benny's and Bella Italia) put in £3 million to try to turn things around. York's branch didn't survive it anyway.
Which makes this less of a case of the rescue plan failing, and more a landlord declining to accept the rent cuts it required. The whole deal worked by squeezing landlord nationally, writing down what they're owed and cutting what they charge. York's, it seems, wasn't interested.
It's not an isolated case in that corner of town. Turtle Bay shut without warning back in July, giving staff just 45 minutes' notice that their jobs were gone.
Two big, recognisable names, two sudden closures, both within a few minutes walk of each other, in under two months. Make of that what you will about the state of York's late-night restaurant trade.
