Much-loved Ramsbottom restaurant Levanter has closed down

Levanter, the much-loved Spanish restaurant in Ramsbottom, is to close. Owners Fiona and Joe Botham broke the terrible news via a short message on the restaurant’s website.

“Levanter is now closed,” they said. “Thank you to all our guests who have visited and supported us over the last nine years. We will miss you.”

It comes after it revealed it had been forced to close its spin-off bar and dining room space on Smithy Street in January this year, citing the cost of living crisis. They had only planned to ‘hibernate’ that part of the business, leaving the main part of the restaurant open, until the summer.

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They said at the time: “We've tried everything possible to avoid this scenario - but you know the script I'm sure the overall Cost Of Living & Cost of Doing Business situation, both (understandably) have seriously reduced demand & simultaneously led to huge rises in our costs from every angle - but undoubtedly & most seriously the UNTENABLE hike in energy prices.

“We could probably just about handle everything else but that's the killer blow. It's impossible to keep all our doors open for now.”

The restaurant had been pleading with government, via its Twitter account, to do something to help, after their energy bills rose from £18,000 a year to a staggering £55,000 a year, tagging in Kier Starmer, Rishi Sunak and the official Downing Street account.

But to no avail.

The Bothams opened Levanter in 2014, after running a successful street food operation, dedicated to the style of cooking from northern Spain’s Basque Country. It quickly became a hit, with national critics heading there to sample its infamous dairy cow sharing steak, which many restaurants have followed