THE OWNERS OF popular Dublin nightclub Yamamori Izakaya have said they find it “extremely difficult” to accept claims made by the neighbouring Hoxton Hotel that its owners are not seeking to “curtail cultural or nightlife activity”.

The hotel, formerly known as the Central Hotel on Dublin’s Exchequer Street, made headlines last week after bringing a court case over noise levels from the nightclub.

The Hoxton opened in November after refurbishment works on the site, and adjoins Yamamori Izakaya, a restaurant and bar where live music is played five nights a week that has been open for decades.

The move was met with outrage by many people online and a protest has been organised for this evening.

On Friday, the hotel owner Trinity Hospitality said the two sides have agreed to work on sound testing together over the weekend to come to a solution.

A spokesperson for Trinity Hospitality last week told The Journal that it sought to “engage constructively with Yamamori Izakaya since late November to conduct joint acoustic testing” and that “testing has not yet been facilitated by Yamamori Izakaya”.

They added that the Hoxton had been left with “no choice but to seek this injunction”.

In a further statement this week, Trinity Hospitality said the proceedings filed last week are “not seeking to close the Yamamori Izakaya” but is seeking”to advance a testing and resolution process to reduce noise transfer into the hotel”.

But in a fresh statement today, the owners of Yamamori Izakaya hit back at the hotel’s claims, saying that it “utterly rejects” the comments of Trinity Hospitality Ltd.

“It is also hard to accept the company’s claim that it had no choice but to seek the injunction,” Yamamori said in its statement.

The club’s owners also claimed that they have sought a meeting between “respective experts” for both parties over recent months.

“The previous operators of the Central Hotel deployed the area over our premises as a function room. The current owners chose to convert this area into bedrooms despite our concerns which were known to them,” the statement read.

Yamamori’s owners argued that during the construction phase they commissioned an expert report to measure sound levels, which they said was provided to the company to assist them in installing measures to limit sound.

They added that, having received the technical sound data this morning from the hotel owners, they are “now analysing” this information.