‘Very heartbreaking’: The Cedar Tree, Ireland’s first Lebanese restaurant, set to close

Rising rent and the cost of living crisis have claimed another victim, with the oldest Lebanese restaurant in Ireland set to close after the bank holiday weekend. The Cedar Tree, which opened on St Andrew’s Street in Dublin in June 1986, will take its final orders on Monday evening and has invited regulars to come for its “last hurrah”. In a social media post, the owners of the family-run restaurant described the decision to call time on the operation after 40 years as “very heartbreaking”. “It’s been a pleasure bringing you a taste of Lebanon since 1986 and an honour to be Ireland’s first and oldest Lebanese restaurant,” they said. READ MORE“We are so thankful to all our customers, community and staff who have been with us over the years. It has been wonderful to be part of one big family with you all.”Restaurant manager Sereen Sarhan told The Irish Times the writing had been on the wall for some time as a result of rent increases, but the family fought to keep the doors open.“We were hoping to have one last Christmas with our regulars because we love them so much and wanted to give them something special to say goodbye but unfortunately that won’t happen,” she said. “Between Covid and higher rents and other things, everything just stacked up. We did our best, we really did.”She said the closure was really sad for her family and the staff. “I grew up here and our staff have been here for at least 10 years and some have been here for 35 years. Everyone is broken-hearted but our hand has been forced and it wasn’t really our choice.”Sarhan said her parents were really upset by the closure and her uncle, who established the restaurant with her father, now lives in Australia and was saddened to hear the news. “When we told him, it broke his heart.” She added: “It was fun while it lasted but every good thing must come to an end.”Regular customers were shocked by the news, with many expressing sadness in response to The Cedar Tree’s Instagram post announcing the upcoming closure. “This breaks my heart,” one person posted. “Truly my favourite place in the world. Every time we visit Dublin, we make a point of having dinner with you!”Diners in the Cedar Tree restaurant on St Andrew's Street in Dublin. Photograph: Dave Meehan/The Irish Times Another described The Cedar Tree as their “home away from home” and expressed gratitude for “everything you’ve shared with us over the years”. “I can’t believe you will be closing your doors,” they said. A third person said the restaurant was staffed by the “loveliest people” and that they had “such warm personal memories in this place”. Writing in The Irish Times in 2019, restaurant critic Catherine Cleary described The Cedar Tree as “the kind of restaurant that’s becoming as rare as hen’s teeth in this food quarter of the south city centre”. She suggested it was “the kind of place that can probably rise above the mania of the market thanks to its old lady status”. “These walls hold a long tradition of providing reasonably priced Middle Eastern cooking without a single pomegranate being bothered in the process. It feels as old as the hills depicted in its mosaics where little has changed over the years. And these days that feels like no bad thing.”