The Unicorn Restaurant, one of Dublin’s best-known Italian restaurants and a favourite haunt of the rich and famous, will reopen despite now being closed.

A notice posted on its website stated: "Giorgio, Noreen and Rudy would like to thank you all for the wonderful 18 years that we have had here at the Unicorn. Circumstances have meant we have to leave and the restaurant is now closed."

No further explanation was forthcoming for the closure which happened after business on Thursday night.

However, the landlords, Jeff and Pia Stokes, have said they will reopen the Unicorn in the "very near future" and will be managing it from now on. There had been tension in the past between Mr Stokes and Giorgio Casari, who operated the Unicorn.

In February the Circuit Civil Court ordered the repossession of a premises being run as an extension of the Unicorn because the termination of the lease at the end of the year.

Italian-born Mr Casari took over the eatery in 1994 along with his wife Noreen and son Rudy.

Prior to Mr Casari's involvement, the restaurant was owned by another Italian immigrant, Renato Sidoli, and his sister-in-law Dom who became famous for her soirées held on Saturday afternoons which attracted the movers and shakers of Irish society at the time.

Developer Harry Crosbie has sought to resurrect the same Saturday afternoon atmosphere at Café Bar H in the Docklands.

Those who have dined at the Unicorn Restaurant include former US president Bill Clinton, the actor Michael Gambon and Bono.