Community rallies around water damaged café in Hobart’s Sandy Bay
The Sandy Bay community has rallied around the Sisterhood café after it announced it would close indefinitely following a damaging water leak, prompting the owner to consider temporary locations in the interim.
Just weeks after opening, the cafe has been forced to close after discovering extensive damage had been caused by an uncapped drain under its floor that had been spilling water there since before the business opened.
The news of the closure came as the popular café was nominated for a national best-cafe award in the 2019 Eat Drink Design Awards.
Cafe owner Yasmin Chung told The Mercury that the 140-seat shop would require a “complete do-over” to repair the damage caused to floors, benchtops, walls and other infrastructure.
“There was cracking in tiles and the floors started to rise up. Then our main marble bench top started to move,” she said.
However, community support has given her hope the café can overcome the estimated three month refit of the café.
“It’s only been two days since we closed but we’re already talking about doing a couple pop-ups at other places and we might approach other businesses about possibly renting their space,” she said.
Sheridan Randall, 29th August 2019
