12/08/2026
Hideout Lounge Closure.
It is with a great deal of sadness, tears and despair, that we have to announce the permanent closing down of The Hideout Lounge, our family business for the past 7 years. Firstly, we would like to thank all our wonderful, loyal and generous customers, many of who were much more than just regulars, for your continuous support from the very start.
The decision to shut has been an exceedingly painful one for the family and we have tried very hard to keep going as long as we have, but trading conditions have meant we have been working as hard as we possibly can for absolutely no gain. The factors and challenges facing hospitality have been well documented, unprecedented food inflation, way above what is being reported in the media, the rise in minimum wage, which proved unsustainable for us as a small business and the business rates hike, along with about multitude of other price rises that we simply couldn’t absorb.
It’s so very difficult putting your heart and soul, collectively into a dream, to put everything you’ve got physically and mentality into growing it and keeping it going, to have to admit to yourselves that there’s really just no point in going any further. We have all had months without drawing a salary and absolutely no chance of a holiday for several years, so it was definitely time to look after ourselves and move on.
For Dan, it is the end of his 17 years in catering, which is a massive decision and such a shame. He wanted to let everyone know that he a real mixture of emotions, which is understandable and hopes everyone will know how grateful we all were for your support. He moves away from food and into the construction industry, which is quite a contrast to say the least. Hospitality just isn’t working for most and it’s demoralising to feel you’re getting somewhere before the next big boot comes and kicks you, where you don’t want to be kicked.
From Kim and my point of view, we are extremely proud of Dan, Matt and the whole Hideout Team. You have been fantastic and great fun to work with, most of the time! We are proud of the reputation we managed to build, we are proud of the food awards we picked up and we’re proud of the dishes we put on the plates and the quality and service we provided.
We all tried our best, we all gave 100%, we’re not sure we could have done much more.
So thank you, thank you, thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and we are so very sorry the pancakes, coronation chicken, burger bennies, chicken wah’s, burger nights, special events and carrot cakes are no more.
