Adelaide’s top restaurants, diners confused over bizarre opening conditions
Adelaide’s hospitality sector is wrestling with a “sense of injustice” over confusing, inconsistent rules for different venues – as some leading chefs question if it’s even worth reopening for just 20 patrons.
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Some of Adelaide’s top restaurants are weighing up if it’s worth opening under the 20-person dining limit, while others are confused they are forced to stay closed despite the Government easing restrictions.
While award-winning Africola and Golden Boy will re-open, both are yet to decide if they will trade under the current rules, which permit a maximum of 10 diners inside and the same outside.
Other popular restaurants such as Magill Estate, 2KW, Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard and Apoteca have all discovered they cannot reopen until June 5, because they all fall under various other trading licences.
“This is causing much confusion and mixed messages with the public as they don’t understand the different licence structures,” said Sharon Pearson from Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard in Lenswood.
Australian Hotels Association head Ian Horne said the different rules for licensed premises – which on Friday afternoon prompted a significant backflip from the Premier – added to the stress and anxiety of predominantly small businesses.
“The exclusion of pubs, bars, wineries and the like serves no purpose and can’t be supported by any medical imperative otherwise all other states would have adopted the same and of course they haven’t,” Mr Horne said.
“It’s not too late to fix this. The sense of injustice across the hospitality sector is real, the model flawed, the credibility of the architects unnecessarily damaged.”
Martin Palmer, managing director of Palmer Hospitality and owner of city diner 2KW, slammed the ruling.
“The most challenging thing about the changes to restrictions that were announced yesterday is that our customers are completely confused,” he said.
“In the last 24 hours, we have fielded hundreds of inquiries at 2KW … but we’re unable to open. Venues are permitted to open linked to their licence, rather than their style of operation. As a result, many venues now have a two-week head start.”
Paola Coro, owner of restaurant Apoteca in Hindley St, has also been hit by the licensing rule. “Unfortunately, we’re not permitted to open tomorrow as we have an on-premises licence,” she said.
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East End Cellars’ Tasting Room will trade from June 5.
“The staff are excited about moving forward and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” owner Michael Andrewartha said.
Mr Andrewartha said sittings would be limited to two hours with a minimum spend a head of $150 for dinner.
“We’re not greedy, we’re just trying to cover our costs,” he said.
Premier Steven Marshall said it was important to draw lines in the sand and the lines had to be drawn on the different licences.
“There is a risk analysis that you can do, but there is also the aggregate ... and the advice that we have received from the transition committee is that they’re not looking to massively increase dining at this stage.
“We are just taking baby steps until the fifth of June.”
Restaurateur Simon Kardachi, owner of venues such as Press* Food & Wine, Nido, Osteria Oggi, Shobosho and Melt, said allowing 10-20 customers “is still better than none”.
“The phones have been running hot since the announcement yesterday,” he said.
“It won’t to be easy,” Press* partner Eloise Riggs said, “but we’ll work as best we can with the parameters that are in place.”
Confusion over sale of booze
Thousands of South Australian businesses with liquor licenses will watch on as other businesses can serve alcohol for the next two weeks while they cannot, new figures obtained by The Advertiser show.
As confusion continues over who can serve booze and who cannot today, the data show there are thousands of pubs, clubs, restaurants, breweries and small bars that cannot serve alcohol.
Figures provided by the Attorney-General’s Department show there are 1661 restaurant and catering licences in South Australia that allow these businesses to serve alcohol with meals from today. However, there are a further 2688 businesses with licences that allow them to sell booze, but they will not be able to until June 5 when restrictions are lifted on pubs, clubs, small bars and breweries.
Premier Steven Marshall defended the step-by-step reopening of SA venues, saying, “We are trying to lift the restrictions in an orderly way.
“If you had have asked me six weeks ago if we would be back dining in a pub on the 5th of June I would have said I think it’s a low chance – and yet here we are two weeks away from being able to dine in our pubs, clubs and cafes.”