Mark Hix to close his Dorset pub the Fox Inn

13-Jul-2022 - Last updated on 13-Jul-2022 at 08:24 GMT

Closing time: Mark Hix said the pub's last service will be lunch on 17 July

Mark Hix is to close the Dorset pub he took on just a year and a half ago citing rising costs and staffing challenges as the reason.

The chef and restaurateur opened the Fox Inn in Corscombe, Dorset, in December 2020 admitting that it was a challenging time for the pub sector but says that he couldn’t have foreseen how hard it would be to operate in the coming year.

Writing in a post on Instagram, Hix said: “I know that I don’t need to tell anyone how hard it has been for everyone in the industry since Covid hit, and the challenges simply continue with rising costs and a difficulty to recruit like I have never known in my whole career.

“And so, with a heavy heart, it is time to permanently close the doors of the Fox Inn.”

The pub’s last service will be lunch on 17 July.

The closure is yet another low point in a two-year period that Hix will want to forget. Earlier in 2020 his restaurant business filed for administration without his support.

“I am feeling slightly numb having to close another business so soon after opening, but this is the reality so many of us are now facing,” Hix adds.

Hix continues to run the popular the Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis, which he says “continues to do really well”.