The abrupt closure of Canberra barbecue restaurant Smoque has left about 25 staff with unpaid wages and suppliers owed thousands, including the family run farm that supplied the restaurant with meat.
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Rebecca McCormack owns Lost River Produce in Crookwell, raising lamb, beef and pork. She and her husband supplied Smoque with its meat and say they have been left $15,500 out of pocket.
Liquidators RSM Australia were called in on Sunday morning, August 7, and the restaurant has stopped trading.
RSM's Canberra managing partner Frank Lo Pilato said the restaurant's employees were notified on Monday.
"We've sent an email and letters out to them saying there's an employee scheme under which they can get paid for unpaid wages," he said.
"So we've been encouraging people to lodge their claims."
Chef and restaurateur Grant Kells opened Smoque in 2012 and it proved a popular barbecue eatery, with Mr Kells opening a second restaurant in Woden in 2014.
But the Woden restaurant went abruptly into liquidation earlier this year and now the main Civic restaurant has followed suit.
Mr Kells also previously ran Flint, a fine-dining restaurant which was one of several businesses destroyed in the 2011 fire at NewActon. He has not responded to requests for comments.
Ms McCormack said her family-run farm, which has a shop in Crookwell and Dickson, had taken a big hit.
"It's actually a really scary situation for myself," she said.
"We started where I'm working now in Crookwell as a little shop and then we've expanded into the Canberra restaurant trade. For a small business, $15,000 of bad debt is huge."
Liquidators will begin examining the restaurant's books but haven't yet been able to assess the extent of Smoque's debts.
"He had the Civic store plus the Dickson store, there's some equipment there at the Dickson store for smoking," Mr Lo Pilato said.
"So we're in the process of trying to see if we can sell in the business in situ or alternatively sell the equipment and I think there's some interest in the smoking machine, the smoking equipment. So that's where we stand at the moment."
Mr Lo Pilato said his team would focus on trying to sell the restaurant's assets and vacate the premises on City Walk in Civic.
