Another prominent Oxford restaurant has closed -- adding to the growing turmoil among the city's eateries.

Michel Sadones, who has been a familiar figure on the local restaurant scene for many years, has shut Ma Belle, in Blue Boar Street, with the loss of 11 full and part-time jobs.

It comes just weeks after the Oxford Mail revealed Savannah, in Park End Street, had gone into receivership, with celebrity chef Raymond Blanc's Le Petit Blanc in Jericho also in the same position.

Two other establishments, Livebait, in Turl Street, and La Gousse D'Ail, in Woodstock Road, have closed in the past year.

Both Le Petit Blanc and Savannah have been bought by new owners. Mr Sadones will put Ma Belle into receivership, but the restaurant will not be sold as a going concern.

He said reasons for the closure included the effects of the September 11 atrocities and the Iraq war as well as growing competition in the Oxford restaurant trade.

But he added: "At the end of the day I'm a restaurateur, not a businessman and I only have myself to blame.

"You have to have good business sense to run a restaurant these days -- charisma and cooking don't pay the bills."

Mr Sadones, who formerly ran the Michel's Bistro chain and Quincey's restaurant in Little Clarendon Street, is now setting up an outside catering business. He added that all his former staff had been re-employed locally.

Meanwhile, the Le Petit Blanc chain has been bought by seafood specialist Loch Fyne Restaurants for an undisclosed sum, bringing together two outlets in Walton Street under the same ownership.

Mr Blanc and his management team will retain a 25 per cent stake in the business.

Savannah, which went into receivership last month, has been taken over by London bar and restaurant owner Marcello Alessi.

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