One of the area's longest serving restaurants says goodbye
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One of Chiswick's longest surviving restaurants is to close this weekend. Cafe Rouge will have its final day of trading on Sunday, following years of speculation about its future.
Tragus, the group which operates Café Rouge, Strada and Bella Italia, has decided to close the Chiswick High Road branch and redeploy the staff within the company.
There are unconfirmed reports that the Chiswick High Road premises will be refurbished shortly to become a branch of a popular burger restaurant chain
A source has said that the Strand on the Green branch of Cafe Rouge will remain in business despite local reports that it is earmarked for closure.
Some years ago there were rumours that Cafe Rouge was to close following poor trading performance amid competition from Villandry (later the French Kitchen).
A staff member said that local people had been expressing their sadness that the French cafe/bistro was closing.
"We get a lot of elderly people who come in every day for coffee and they're very upset", he said.
The first Cafe Rouge opened in south-west London in 1989 and there are 125 branches throughout the UK including Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
January 10, 2014