Restaurant Hartenlust in Havelte ceases to exist. Owner Joost Hepkema is burdened with corona debts and, according to him, there is too little future perspective at the site of the former Hesselte holiday park.
“Unfortunately I have no choice, it is a forced stop,” Hepkema responds. “We’ll stop after Christmas.”
Hepkema started the restaurant in January 2020. “After being open for 2.5 months, we then had to close for two years due to corona,” he reflects. He received corona support, but still had to repay those loans. That later turned out to be too much of a challenge.
The restaurant has always been part of the Hesselte holiday park. When the municipality bought the holiday park in 2022 and presented plans to turn it into a residential area, it caused a lot of headaches.
Ultimately, Hepkema decided that there is too little perspective. “It’s very hard and sad,” he says. He announced his decision to the area on December 13. “I get a lot of responses that cheer me up.”
He will spend his last days in the next two weeks. Then it is busy with bookings for Christmas drinks. It is not yet known what will happen to the place afterwards.