After six months of serving tiramisu with temper tantrums on the side, hospitality hell-raiser Cormac Keane has thrown in the towel.

The eccentric chef's up-market Portofino restaurant, in Cape Town, closed this weekend - becoming the latest in a string of restaurant casualties in the city.

Keane's departure follows hot on the heels of that of celebrity chef Conrad Gallagher, who closed his swish noodle bar, Geisha, and fled the country amid allegations of debt and tantrums last year.

Keane had set up shop in succession to chef Bruce Robertson's, whose Showroom went belly-up last year.

But the departure of Cape Town's "rudest restaurateur" might be sweet revenge for local foodies.

A month after Portofino opened in Greenpoint in September, Keane - famed for serving good Italian food, wearing red shoes and flaunting his temper - rubbished claims by a patron called "Robert" who dared to mention that Portofino's food was overpriced.

"Are you retarded Robert, or just the cheapest man in Cape Town?

"When you say we are overpriced, are you comparing us to the spaza near you," Keane raged on the Cape Town blog relaxwithdax.co.za.

Patrons accused him of verbal abuse and aiming punches.

The eatery owner also stirred up a storm when he banned some well-heeled patrons from his restaurant.

"Please do us all a favour and don't ever book a table at my restaurant again," he wrote in an e-mail after a businessman asked if he could postpone a Portofino meal booking by one day.

The heated altercation, published on weblogs, had Cape Town's culinary circles foaming at the mouth - so much so that the scandal made the pages of the Irish Independent newspaper.

"My mother nearly dropped her drawers when she saw it," Keane told The Timeslast year.

Yesterday he said: "I certainly won't miss dealing with difficult people. I've always been honest. If people were difficult in my space in Portofino I would tell them to go somewhere else."

Keane now plans to travel around Africa in an attempt to forget the perils of satisfying finicky palates.

"The restaurant business is lots of work, with little or no reward. I was just not enjoying it enough," he told The Times.

"I think restaurants in general are going through a tough time in Cape Town . struggling with high rents and running costs.

"People are eating out less and spending less.

"The hospitality business has to find new ways to evolve and survive in such a climate."

But Keane was sure to say that, unlike Gallagher, he had no debt and that his staff of 15 have found employment elsewhere.