Melbourne hospitality hustles to reopen

As of 11.59pm last night, the Melbourne hospitality industry was rejoicing, with many opening their doors for the first time in months to allow patrons to dine and drink at their establishments.

To say it was a rush for restaurant, café and pub owners to get things organised for their opening would be an understatement, with many businesses hurriedly reworking their premises to allow for outdoor dining.

When premier Daniel Andrews announced hospitality could reopen, general manager of the Chapel Street Precinct Association, Chrissie Maus was “extraordinarily relieved and excited” but also said “it’s an absolute pipe dream to think that the majority of our businesses will just be able to transition to outdoor dining”.

From today, hospitality venues will be allowed to accept dine-in customers. This is with a maximum of two groups of 10 inside and 50 people outside, with at least two square metres per person. 

These limits are set to increase to 40 people inside, and 70 at outdoor venues from 8 November.

Melbourne café and restaurants were given just over a day to get their businesses ready for indoor dining and getting suppliers to deliver in such a short amount of time has been problematic

“I’m really, really happy but it is a bit difficult to organise in a day-and-a-half,” said Michael Favaloro from the Amici Cafe on Chapel Street.

“It’s been a bit of a scramble to get suppliers. By yesterday afternoon they were sold out of food because they haven’t been carrying a lot of stuff either … We will just have to get to Costco and find a way.” 

Peter Appleby, pub manager at Grand Hotel in Warrandyte said his phone was ringing off the hook from the second the announcement was made. 

"To stand behind the bar and pull a beer and chat to our loyal regulars who have supported us through these last seven months, I can't wait — it is just going to be a special day," he said.

But the fact that they were given such a short amount of time to prepare was disappointing. 

"A 30-odd hour turnaround time to get stock delivered and the place cleaned and ready to go that is a bit disappointing — it is so soon," he said.

Irit Jackson, 28^th October 2020