The good times are over at Happy Fish, the sushi restaurant at the Marketplace. Also at the Marketplace, Gastro Grub is on life support.
A recent transplant to the island, Dave Trent, took over Happy Fish in August. A glance at his Web site suggests the problem was in himself and not the stars. "To be honest, the last five years have been a train wreck and it took me losing everything to realize that," he wrote some time ago. "I'm continuing to persue (sic) my pation (sic) of food as the new owner of the Happy Fish," he added last summer.
Apparently, Trent's inattention to spelling was matched by his concern for customer service. "The guy who runs the place is NOT a business man !!," said a reviewer on TripAdvisor. "We had a problem with our food and the response we get from the owner was 'If you don't like it then get out', and we did. We will never go there again."
In fairness, however, there are also plenty of positive reviews for Happy Fish's offerings, earning the place four stars. Suggesting, Trent does know how to cook and turned out lots opf good times for many good people. Nevertheless, the place is closed.
And the outlook for GastroGrub, the well regarded, ambitious effort of island resident Allen Lancaster is also iffy. Referring to his failed neighbor on the second floor at the Marketplace, Lancaster wrote on his Facebook page, "GastroGrub is dangerously close to suffering the same fate. We are doing everything possible to avoid this occurring but some things are beyond our control."
"We entered into this as a greatly under capitalized new business and just haven’t been able to get caught up," he continued.
Dave Trent and Allan Lancaster have nothing in common. Dave is still a train wreck who ruined a fine restaurant and put long standing employees out of a job. Happy Fish went downhill because of drugs, free spending and mismanagement. WAPA had nothing to do with Happy Fish’s failure
Allan is an honorable businessman who took over the lease for La Plancha/Black Sands after the death of their chef/partner last summer. Gastro Grub is a wonderful restaurant and Allan is working his butt off, unfortunately he does not have the funds to keep a new business afloat during the first year of ups and downs. It will be a sad day if Gastro Grub closes!
It was a great day when Dave Trent left St John, his employees had a party after he slithered away!
Suggesting, Trent does know how to cook and turned out lots opf (sic) good times for many good people.
Is this a mugshot?
Man, train wreck is an understatement based on Mr. Trent’s blog. Sorry to see a restaurant close and people lose jobs, but the guy looks like really bad news.