laws to help Bermuda's ailing restaurants survive the recession.

Mr. DeSilva, who co-owns Rum Runners restaurant/bar, believes the current law applicable to restaurants serving liquor is too rigid.

Restaurant/bars were required to keep their kitchens open until 1 a.m., said Mr. DeSilva.

"If a customer wants to make an issue, they could demand food at ten to one in the morning and you would have to provide it,'' he added.

Business was so bad that this requirement was a heavy financial burden for restaurants, he said.

"Business is absolutely terrible at the moment,'' said Mr. De Silva. "If we were allowed to close out kitchen at 6 p.m., we could do many, many things to reduce costs.

"The state of the economy provides an ideal opportunity for the Liquor Licensing Board to look into the possibility of a new type of licence.'' Ideally, a new licence would allow restaurant/bars to close their kitchens early in the evening but allow them to carry on serving alcohol to customers until 1 a.m.

At the moment, bars which do not serve cooked food, such as Casey's, must close at 10 p.m., he said.

If nothing was done soon, Mr. De Silva said it was only a matter of time before some of the Island's hardest-hit restaurants started folding.

"It's not too far off when we see one or two restaurants closing permanently,'' he said. "It's virtually impossible for all of the restaurants that exist in Hamilton at the moment to survive.'' Looking for customers in the current economic climate was like "looking for a needle in a haystack'', he said.

"If the tourists do not start hitting this Island with some major increases in numbers then restaurants will start going under,'' he said.

"Government has to take responsibility to the benefit of all concerned. The introduction of a new licence would be a start.'' Rum Runners was currently in the midst of a six-week closure, ostensibly for refurbishment and a general clean-up, which takes place every other year.

But Mr. DeSilva added: "Without a doubt, the fact that business has slowed has also played a part.

"The number of customers we were getting did not warrant keeping staff on for this six week period. There are far too many restaurants on this Island. The pie has gotten very thin, yet the conditions involving restaurant licences have not changed.'' As much as 70 percent of Rum Runners' lunch-time trade usually came from tourists. "But there's none around at the moment, that's for damned sure,'' he said.

Apart from too many restaurants in Hamilton, local diners were not being helped by large numbers of visitors who chose to eat at hotel restaurants, rather than venture out.

"Hotels offer a number of packages to keep diners in-house,'' said Mr. De Silva. "It certainly doesn't help.''