Talks to reopen Dudley's ill-fated Brooke's Bistro

Brooke's Bar and Bistro closed last August, after losing the authority £387,700 in its first 18 months

The restaurant, in the former Crown Court building in Priory Street, was opened by mayor of Dudley Councillor Sue Greenaway in September 2022.

Adjacent to the town hall, it was an attempt to boost the town's visitor economy. It received positive reviews for its food and service, but made heavy losses.

The bistro, named after the town's former MP Brooke Robinson, closed in August last year, but a source inside the council said negotiations were in their final stages with an operator looking to take on the lease.

The source was hopeful the restaurant would reopen within the coming months.

If successful, the restaurant would generate a rental income for the council, the source added.

In October last year, members of the council's audit and standards committee were told how £1.5m was initially spent converting the former courtroom into a restaurant.

Committee chairman, Councillor Karl Denning, said most hospitality businesses would have closed in their first year after making such heavy losses.

“The alarm bells didn’t sound in that first year and the amount is neck-snapping, officers did not tell elected officials and elected officials did not stop the money," he said.

“Losing that much money is shameful on all of us.”

Helen Martin, Dudley’s director of regeneration and enterprise, the department which was in charge of the bar until April 2024, said: “All of the costs and income loss was monitored from day one and reported through all the various different budget areas, we started conversations with commercial at a point when we needed their support.

“Effectively the team manager above it was a quantity surveyor not a caterer who was trying to make it work and make it a success.

“A huge amount of effort went in by a large number of people to try and make this a viable going concern.”

Councillors were told consultants who were paid a total of £64,000 for advising on a number of council sites, including Brooke's, eventually took over running the venue after three managers left.

They heard the consultants ended up designing menus, working behind the bar and in the kitchen as well as analysing costs and coaching staff.

Councillor Shaukat Ali said: “This seems to have been an expensive experiment, it seems there was confusion throughout.

“There was no consistency in terms of what was proposed and how it was going to be delivered.

“It was lots of public money and we are accountable – it needs to be spent in the best possible way, it is the taxpayer who bears the burden of that failure.”

Councillors also expressed frustration that much of the detail was presented to the committee in private to protect commercially sensitive and personal information.

Councillor Shaun Keasey, who runs a nightclub, said: “The whole thing sounds like an utter shambles.

"I am really disappointed the public will not have the chance to see what went wrong, why it went wrong and who was responsible.”

Councillor Denning was especially critical of the council’s failure to adapt its business plan for the effects of the pandemic of the hospitality industry.

He said: “The business plan was out of date and hospitality was on its bum.

“I like to quote Einstein who said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Brooke Robinson served as Dudley's coroner before becoming Conservative MP for the town in 1886, a post he held for 20 years before retiring due to ill health. 

He died in 1911, leaving his art collection to the town, as well as a sum of money which was used to build the town hall complex, including the court buildings and a museum.