Overview
In the world of hospitality, Valentine's Day is notoriously one of the most hectic days of trade. But for Heston Blumenthal's Crown Melbourne restaurant Dinner by Heston, this year, it'll also be its last.
A Dinner by Heston spokesperson confirmed the fine diner, which has been embroiled in a wage-theft scandal for months, will shut its doors at the end of business on Friday, February 14. Fronted by Blumenthal and owned by British company Tipsy Cake Pty Ltd, Dinner by Heston opened back in 2015 and entered provisional liquidation late last year after failing to meet a deadline to calculate and back pay entitlements to workers by December 20, 2019.
According to a creditor's report leaked to the ABC, the restaurant owes staff more than $4 million in wages and another $400,000 in employee entitlements.
Dinner by Heston's Meat Fruit
As a result of the restaurant's insolvency and provisional liquidation, Crown Melbourne moved to terminate Tipsy Cake's lease last week, with a Crown spokeswomen telling Concrete Playground: "Crown is working to provide assistance to Tipsy Cake employees looking for employment within Crown. The Provisional Liquidator of Tipsy Cake, however, will need to deal with employee matters at the first instance."
Dinner by Heston's closure comes the same week another high-profile wage scandal reaches a head. Earlier this week, twelve eateries owned by former MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris closed their doors as his restaurant group Made Establishment went into voluntary administration. Like Calombaris, Blumenthal, a regular guest judge in the cooking show, will not be returning for the upcoming series of MasterChef Australia.
If you'd like to head along to Dinner by Heston before it shuts up shop, you've got two more days. If you have a gift card — and don't have time to use it — you can exchange it for a Crown gift card.
Dinner by Heston will close its doors at the end of service on Friday, February 14.