Wander restaurant forced to close temporarily over visa issues
The restaurant, which is run by Australian chef Alexis Noble, closed last week with Noble saying that he visa extension has been denied and that she was required to leave the country.
Posting on Instagram, she said that she would be appealing the decision but that she was currently not allowed to legally work, forcing the restaurant to remain closed and cancel its reservations.
“Unfortunately, I will be reaching out to everyone who has made reservations for the rest of the year and have to cancel them, and Wander will no longer be open until this situation can be resolved,” she wrote.
Wander, which is currently ranked at number 88 on the UK’s Top 100 Restaurants list, reopened at the end of July this year following the forced closures during lockdown. In the post, Noble described having to close again as being ‘very painful’.
“I don't want to comment too much on my situation whilst I am appealing the decision, but after finally reopening and feeling like we were just getting back to normal its very painful to close again,” she wrote.
“Whilst I have always known my immigration status was temporary, after investing so heavily in both this business and the UK and after fighting so hard throughout the pandemic to survive, I naively never considered this to be a possibility.
It is extremely heartbreaking and stressful to be forced to close again after all the months of forced closures due to Covid, but rather than give up, we are going to try and find a silver lining and use this time to create something.”
