A Broadstairs restaurant has shut with immediate effect after a ‘particularly difficult’ year for the owning family.
Twenty Seven Harbour Street, which is a family restaurant and sprung from the previous venue Wyatt & Jones, run by Jan and Katherine Wyatt.
The venue first opened in September 2023 and was launched as a direct rebranding of Wyatt & Jones, which had operated in the same location from 2012 until August 2023.
But now the immediate closure has been announced on social media.
A statement from the restaurant owners says: “After a great deal of thought we have made the difficult decision to close our doors.
“This past year has been a particularly difficult one for us personally and as a family. This is not a decision we have taken lightly. This site has been our home for many years and has seen us through so many different chapters of our lives.
“Our daughters have grown up here and our sons have worked for us in various roles. This restaurant has been such a huge part of our family life, saying goodbye is incredibly difficult but the right decision.
“We are so proud of what we’ve created, the community that has grown around it and all the memories that have been made here.
“We would like to thank our incredible team, a genuinely brilliant group of people who have worked extremely hard for us producing exceptional food and giving outstanding customer service over the years. They are the best.
“They may now be looking for new opportunities, so if you’re a great local business looking for great people please let us know. We wish them all the success they deserve.
“To our customers who have supported us over the years, thank you. For every visit, recommendation, celebration, conversation and familiar face through the doors, we are genuinely grateful. Thank you for being part of the journey.
“We also want to say a huge thank you to our family and friends. Their love, help and support throughout our time here has meant more to us than we can put into words.
“Thank you also to the Anselmi family for their support over the years and for giving us the opportunity to take over this beautiful building.”
All bookings have now been cancelled.
Councillor and B&B owner Barry Manners said it is ‘a blow’ to the isle’s hospitality industry.
He said: “It is a really important weekend visitor experience in Thanet. Food is a big part of the scene in Broadstairs, Margate and Ramsgate – we have got a number of good restaurants but not as many as we could have.
“It was somewhere that I recommended to my B&B guests as it can be a struggle to find a good restaurant that has tables at the weekend.
“People spending money to stay here need restaurants like this otherwise they will go to place like Brighton and Rye instead. We want them to come here as they do not only spend in the restaurants but will also buy coffees, ice creams – it is an important part of the visitor economy.”
A 2025 visitor survey highlighted that food and drink was named as a reason for visiting the isle, with events such as the Margate Restaurant Week attracting visitors and boosting hospitality trade incomes.
In the report, the tourism team at Thanet council said: “Food and drink is an effective way to showcase a region’s culture and heritage. This creates an opportunity to make more of the niche in Thanet such as supporting investment in foodie-related businesses and experiences, especially those offering off-season experiences.”
Twists Pizza in Broadstairs also closes this weekend with the loss of six jobs.
The venue was opened by Broadstairs businessman Neal Parton in July last year but he says he has made the ‘incredibly difficult decision’ due to rising costs ‘driven by government policy.’
In December Neal warned that changes to commercial rateable values and reductions in rates relief would lead to closures on the high street.
In the November budget, the Chancellor announced that from April 2026, the new rateable value of commercial properties would kick in and some current business rate relief schemes would be reduced.
For Twist’s that meant greater increased overheads. The York Street business had been benefitting from Small Business Rate Relief, with a rates bill of £0 but the new valuation figure for 2026/27 showed a rateable value of £16,000, despite no change in how the premises trades and no corresponding increase in profits.
Now Neal says he has been forced to make the decision to close the doors for the last time on Sunday 6th September.
We absolutely loved it when it was the York gate cafe, perhaps it’ll revert now back to something more traditional that’s open all year every day for locals and visitors. Keep it simple, basic and affordable.
Those days are gone, staff costs are expensive so you can only open when you expect to break even or make a profit. There’s not a lot of passing trade for too much of the year. Basic and affordable varies from person to person. Take a look at prices in Dalby Cafe, Forts, A Beano, if you’re in a low wage job none are affordable on a daily basis. In the case of the Dalby the days of it being packed with builders every day are long gone.
This is yet more bad news for Broadstairs and for Thanet’s visitor economy.
27 Harbour Street was more than just another restaurant. It was a proper ‘destination restaurant’. Residents and visitors would go out of their way to visit because of the food, atmosphere and fabulous view across Viking Bay.
It was also one of my personal favourites, with super friendly service. The exciting, innovative menu made eating there a real treat. I regularly recommended it to visitors and the feedback was invariably excellent.
Whilst I’m unaware of the precise circumstances in this instance, its closure ought to remind us of the increasingly difficult environment in which independent hospitality businesses are trying to survive under a Labour government.
Labour’s tax raid on employment has destroyed jobs. Employer National Insurance has increased from 13.8% to 15%, and the threshold at which employers start paying NI has been slashed from £9,100 to just £5,000. For labour intensive businesses like restaurants, hotels and pubs, employing people has simply become TOO expensive.
At the same time Britain is forecast to spend around £353 BILLION on welfare in 2026/27. We have created the crazy, unsustainable situation where businesses in hospitality struggle to recruit and retain staff while welfare (and our tax bills) continues to grow out of all control.
We are in an economic mad house under Labour.
Independent restaurants matter enormously to tourism destinations like Thanet. They are part of a wider visitor experience. Our restaurants, pubs, shops, hotels, cafés and attractions collectively make Thanet somewhere worth visiting and living in.
When a business as distinctive as 27 Harbour Street disappears, we should be very concerned. I very much hope it’s replaced by something equally ambitious and valuable to the Broadstairs dining experience.
Our best wishes go to the owners and the excellent team behind 27 Harbour Street for every success for whatever comes next. They created something really special there and Broadstairs will be poorer for its loss.
Used to be good, but last we went was VERY disappointing, service was terrible and food badly overcooked and presented. No way we’d have gone back. They were obviously struggling.
Hospitality industry has been hit hard by changes to rates, minimum wage, national insurance, enrgy costs and that’s before the increases in their costs from suppliers. Customers can only have so much passed on. Plus the public are similarly under cost pressures, a few less customers and a reduced profit margin soon takes its toll.
Plus thanet as a whole and broadstairs in particular have a lot of restaurants. There’ll be more gone by the new year.
Sadly, a lovely restaurant down my manor has just closed up. Don’t know why, but it’s another unoccupied commercial ground-floor unit adjacent to the high street. Why are these businesses quitting? It’s a question our MP should have a solution. Remembering Thanet may not be their step-up-and-go, Makerfield-style ladder of progression. So the MP is here for a stretch to sort it all out.
Not delighted with their sound of silence
Overpriced and unremarkable; other restaurants at that price point in and around the Isie exist and have been thriving, this outfit is just not very good at it, simple as that.
Increased costs borne by restaurants is irrelevant here; if your menu is delicious and conveys an ambient experience to match or exceed current provisions, diners will pay and you will stay in business. If you dumb everything down, only do as much as what your competitors are doing at that price point and nothing more, move on lad.
Bouy and Oyster in the lesser perceived Margate are doing just fine.
Diners are now savvy enough to see past the cheap, low effort adornments on the plate such as lame side salad compositions with that tiny slither of Norwegian celeriac placed within just to “look cool”. Nor are creative menu adjectives going to win custom either.