Deirdre's Restaurant at Laharum Grove to close

The restaurant has been owned and run by Deirdre Baum for about five years. 

Ms Baum bought the Laharum Grove property 13 years ago and said she would continue to own the land. 

“We are going to keep the property and I think there are really exciting things that can happen in our corner of the Grampians in the future,” she said.

“Ideally it would be nice to lease the restaurant space, and maybe once the boys are through school I can revisit it.”

The olive trees on the property are now being leased to Grampians Olive Company.

Ms Baum said when she opened the restaurant, the aim was for the business from the olive groves to help support the restaurant.

Fires in January of 2014 burnt Laharum Grove.

“The fires completely burnt the olive groves, and so the business model changed a bit,” she said.

“With a lot of things, after a fire you can build it back fairly quickly, but when it comes to olive groves and trees you have to wait for it to recover. You can’t speed up the process, you just have to wait.”

Ms Baum has lived at the Laharum property in the past, but after the fires returned to Ballarat. 

“I’ve been running the restaurant for five years and I did catering before that for a number of years,” she said.

“Since the fires we have moved back to Ballarat and I just want to find a better balance. My children have a few years left of school and I want to spend more time with them.”

Ms Baum said she still had some functions and weddings booked in which would go ahead, but at this stage she had not decided what she would do next year.

“At the moment we won’t be taking future bookings for functions but I don’t have further plans for next year, so we will see what happens,” she said.

Ms Baum thanked the customers who passed through her doors in the past five years.

“I see lots of people and we have had lots of repeat customers and I’m really proud of what we have achieved,” she said.

“We have had fantastic reviews from people. Even though I am closing, the nice thing is I’m leaving on a high note. I’m not closing it in a bad situation or for the fact I am hating it, I am fortunate that it’s all on my terms.

“I think the restaurant will be missed, absolutely. It will be sad to close down.”

Deirdre’s will close on December 9.