A planned rent rise is forcing Wan Chai’s Louis Steakhouse to call it quits after 41 years.
The restaurant was opened in 1974 by brothers Yeung Tai-wah and Yeung Tai-ching in the Malaysia Building on Gloucester Rd. In recent years, the pair told The Standard, their rent has risen by about 20 per cent at each renewal.
The latest, unspecified rise, is the straw which has broken the camel’s back – the restaurant would no longer be viable with the increase proposed by the owner.
Some of the staff of the venue have worked there for as long as 30 years and the brothers say they feel “awful” about the decision to close. At their age, they do not want to relocate.
According to The Standard, Louis Steakhouse survived on just four customers a night on average during the SARS crisis and business also dropped during the Occupy Central protest.
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