"Dear Customers and Friends! I am only addressing you today because I still find it difficult to believe that Bota Alta has closed", reads a post signed by Paulo Cassiano and published on the restaurant's official Facebook page.

According to the owner of Bota Alta, the landlord decided to increase the monthly rent from €1,300 to €11,000.

"These were years of hard work, but above all of many joys gained through the bonds of friendship I created with clients who I now call friends! We managed to overcome several crises, namely Covid, a time in which we continued to pay the rent and all the employees. The latest crisis is... the increase in our monthly rent from €1,300 to €11,000! It's really €11,000", he lamented.

Noting that the establishment was a "Store with History", Paulo Cassiano says it is "regrettable that there is no legislation to regulate the value of rents".

"It is very sad that Lisbon City Council does not intervene", he further condemned.

"I'm sorry, I'm very sorry to close, just as I'm sorry for Bairro Alto and this Lisbon that is closing", he concluded, thanking everyone who passed by the space.

According to NM, Bota Alta was an unmistakable space in Bairro Alto. It hosted numerous well-known faces from national and international culture, such as actor John Hurt, and was always described as one of António Variações' favourites.