The owner of a Belfast pub complex, which was demolished in January to make way for a student accommodation development, has reopened one of the venues in a former car garage across the street.
Liquor XXX was part of the Bachus Group’s complex of licensed bars on Dublin Road, known as the Filthy Quarter, which closed at the end of December last year to make way for 201 new student accommodation units.
Just two weeks after the closure and making all staff redundant, Bachus Inns ltd, the trading name for Filthy McNasty’s, fell into administration owing around £3.6 million to its creditors.
It followed a court application from HMRC, seeking £246,000 in unpaid tax.
Administrators from FRP Advisory said they expect to raise just £25,000 from the liquidation of Filthy McNasty’s ‘wet stock’, furniture and equipment, meaning unsecured creditors are unlikely to be paid what they are owed.
In a statement, FRP said: “Like many across the hospitality sector, the company experienced challenging operating conditions which regrettably resulted in cash flow difficulties and impacted its ability to operate solvently.”
The London firm was called in by lender HUK 154 Ltd on January 15 2025, one day before HMRC’s case was due to be heard in court. HUK 154 is owned by Hilco Capital.
Work to tear down the Filthy Quarter complex commenced the following day on January 16.
Both Bachus Inns Ltd and the owner of the site, FMN Properties Ltd, are owned by Co Tyrone businessman Peter Dolan.
Other hospitality venues in Mr Dolan’s Bachus Group, including Sweet Afton, Rita’s, The Perch and The Points, are not directly affected by the insolvency.
Alongside its successful planning application to repurpose the Filthy Quarter site as high-rise student accommodation, FMN Properties separately secured planning approval in February 2024 to convert a commercial car garage next door into a new pub.
That former garage at 2A Ventry Street reopened as Liquor XXX on March 14.
The opening of the new venue was teased to Liquor XXX’s 22,400 Instagram followers last month, with a message stating: “We’ve been keeping a little secret…”
All previous posts on the popular social media account have been deleted.
The cocktail bar also announced that just one week after reopening, it had been nominated by the Restaurants Association of Ireland’s Irish Restaurant Awards, in the Ulster category for ‘best cocktail experience’.
A sign advertising the new location has also been erected on the hoarding around on FMN Properties’s development site next to where the former Liquor XXX venue stood just a few months ago.