Qld restaurants and cafes to close in 2022 due to staff shortages and Covid
Australia’s ongoing hospitality staff shortage issue has already hit Queensland hard – and more pain could be on the way. LIST OF CLOSURES
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australia’s ongoing hospitality staff shortage issue has already hit Queensland hard – and sadly more pain could be on the way.
As the industry calls for 200,000 more staff Australia-wide to help it rebuild from the pandemic lockdowns, there are fresh fears for restaurants, bars and cafes.
Jeffrey Williams, chief executive of hospitality industry jobs platform Barcats Australia, predicted venues may look at closing their doors for almost half the week, offering limited menus and taking 25 per cent longer to serve customers this summer.
He estimates Brisbane has 1000 vacancies for bar staff, 500 for wait staff and 1000 for kitchen staff. The city also needs 400 managers, 1500 baristas and 1200 hotel housekeepers.
However calls for reinvestment in the industry have already come too late for some; these are some of the popular Queensland venues sadly forced to shut their doors in 2022 due to staffing issues.
JANUARY
A Maroochydore restaurateur blamed the state government’s advice in handling of the Omicron wave as one of the key reasons why his popular venue could no longer survive.
The owner of Ocean Ended Restaurant and Bar Paul Holmes announced the restaurant’s closure after six successful years.
Mr Holmes said the “last of many straws” was a staff member who became a close contact which forced him to close the doors.
He said the restaurant battled through the 11-week lockdown of 2020, border closures, endless bookings and cancellations, staff shortages and supply chain issues.
However, he said the Omicron wave and health advice from the state government was the tipping point.
Mr Holmes, a man with 45 years’ hospitality experience, remembered watching Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on television telling everyone to “stay at home”.
“It’s totally been caused by the state government toing and froing. They told everyone to stay at home and the people listened,” Mr Holmes said.
APRIL
A popular restaurant north of Brisbane closed its doors for the final time due to staffing numbers.
Pause restaurant, managed by Luca Marra, announced the closure via email after more than five years as one of the area’s finest venues.
“Alas. I’ll keep this short because we are all very sad. We must announce that Pause is closing its doors for good,” the email read.
“It’s been an amazing journey for all of us, yet our current environment leaves us no choice but to call it quits.”
The Samford restaurant had been struggling with staffing numbers since the beginning of Covid when lockdowns restrictions were in place.
“The last two years of Covid, the loss of skilled migrant workers, the mandates, the floods … and consequentially the impossible staffing challenges arising from all this mess sees us (and the entire industry) simply unable to recruit skilled, capable, reliable team members.”
MAY
The highly acclaimed signature restaurant at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art closed in a stunning example of how badly the hospitality industry was affected by a lack of employees.
Cafes and restaurants across the state had been struggling with skilled workforce shortages since the pandemic began with professionals leaving the industry in droves and overseas workers returning home.
The GOMA Restaurant closure was scheduled to be temporary, however, with the venue reopening in June.
MAY
Game-changing South Brisbane restaurant Wandering Cooks permanently closed, in part due to staffing issues.
The eatery, which started out as a casual cafe/bar and incubator for culinary entrepreneurs, renting them a commercial kitchen to try to turn their food dream into a reality, cited a lack of patronage for closing.
“Wandering Cooks, the project to which I have devoted myself for the last decade is closed for good,” owner Angela Hirst wrote on Instagram.
“It is time to accept that the market has made this decision an obvious, if not extremely difficult, one.”
However, constant Covid-related staff shortages plagued the business since the beginning of the year, resulting in regular trade and customers, with Ms Hirst making the sad decision to close.
“It’s been a privilege to serve and share this experience with you.”
JUNE
Severe staffing shortages forced Mackay’s much-loved Oscars Cafe and Bar to temporarily shut after the eatery made the tough decision to close its doors rather than operate understaffed.
Data from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland confirmed more than half of Queensland businesses were facing major or critical constraints in retaining and recruiting suitably qualified staff.
CCIQ’s Policy and Advocacy manager Cherie Josephson said businesses reported labour costs were at a record high in the March 2022 quarter.
“We’re seeing wage bills increase but employment levels are still weak which indicates businesses are paying higher wages in an already competitive labour market,” Ms Josephson said.
An Oscars Cafe spokesman said staffing had previously resulted in frustrated customers.
A sign was hanging in the window that read, “We have plenty of food and coffee … just no staff.”
“Yes we are currently short on staff and made the difficult decision recently to close temporarily until we can (find) the right people,” an Oscars spokesman said at the time.
“We chose this over operating understaffed and at random opening hours.”
AUGUST
Noosa’s world-famous Hastings St strip confronted mass closures as staff shortages mounted.
A depletion of the workforce affecting many hospitality operators in the popular tourist hotspot forced the changing of menu options.
Bistro C, Locale, Cafe Le Monde, and Aromas Restaurant and Bar Noosa along Hastings St, Noosa were among some of the eateries to dial back opening hours.
Aromas Restaurant & Bar Noosa manager Sabina Franz said her restaurant had shrunk its dinner hours from seven to two days a week because it was unable to find employees.
“It’s crippling,” she said.
Ms Franz said the 12-staff restaurant struggled to find employees partly because there were less backpackers in the area following the pandemic.
“We’re struggling – full stop,” she said.
AUGUST
One of the Far North’s premier restaurants felt the bite of staff shortages, influencing a major decision to cut back its operating hours.
Staff shortages put a squeeze on the hospitality industry, despite the return of international working holiday makers, with popular Port Douglas restaurant and bar Watergate announcing it would close its doors on Sundays and Mondays from September 4.
Restaurant owner Ricardo Cooney said his hand had been forced with not enough staff.
“We’re going to try to ramp up capacity, I’m going to squeeze all our staff into five days,” said Mr Cooney.
Mr Cooney said while staff were needed across the board, a shortage of one trade in particular had hampered his business.
“At the moment it’s chefs that are our Achilles heel. That’s an Australia-wide issue,” he said.
“I’m not seeing anybody who’s qualified coming in for chef positions.”
AUGUST
An up-market North Queensland cafe and restaurant staffed primarily by trainee teens closed less than five months after it opened.
Dejected owner-operator Jaymee Van Der Heul confirmed that 4850 cafe & Fine Dining in the spectacular Tyto Entertainment Precinct in Ingham had not been able to pay its rent commitments to the Hinchinbrook Shire Council.
“It’s probably best that we do (close),” Ms Van Der Heul said.
The cafe employs about four teens or young adults with learning disabilities.
In a deleted social media post, Ms Van Der Heul said the high-profile cafe named after the Hinchinbrook postcode had had regular detractors but would not be drawn into further debating the issues.
SEPTEMBER
A cafe owner who infamously claimed Kim Kardashian once dined at his Cairns business was forced to close his doors.
The popular Edge Hill cafe and bar Botanica made headlines in June 2022 after manager Matt Black told the ABC about a visit from Kim Kardashian and then boyfriend Pete Davidson – a story that was picked up by news outlets around the world but turned out to be a hoax.
Mr Black made the sudden announcement he had decided to close Botanica, citing the “overwhelming stress” of running a small business.
The venue initially said it would cut back on operating hours due to staff shortages, however later revealed it would close for good.
“We tried our best to provide you all with a really great cafe, great food, amazing coffee and friendly fun staff,” Mr Black wrote in an Instagram post.
“Unfortunately small business is tough and we have decided to call it a day.”
SEPTEMBER
An Italian restaurant owner has spoken out about the heartbreak he has endured and seeing all his hard work go to ruin because of staff shortages.
Owner of Tantulli’s Italian, Rossano Tantulli, revealed how difficult it was to run a business due to staff shortages, rising wages and lack of quality produce after being forced to shut down one of his restaurants in Brisbane’s northwest.
“To all our Samford customers, it is with much regret we wish to advise that our restaurant will be closed this week until further notice due to staff shortages,” Mr Tantulli said in a post.
However, with too few staff Mr Tantulli had to spread himself too thinly.
“I have three restaurants in Brisbane and they are all suffering from staff shortages. I am very busy,” he said.
“I am an owner and I have to work an average of 15 hours a day because I have to cover people missing on the floor and in the kitchen.
“It is very difficult to run a business like mine at the moment, but hospitality is my life.”
OCTOBER
A restaurant which has been a fan favourite in Brisbane’s inner-south for more than two years closed its doors for the final time.
Thai Rose Bar and Cafe on Logan Rd at Woolloongabba has served its last meal as the venue entered receivership.
The restaurant, which has been part of the community since before 2000, was widely regarded and the closure has shocked fans of Thai Rose.
Rosie Brooks, a business owner from BA Creative at Woolloongabba, said the restaurant would be dearly missed after she had been eating there since 2000.
“I don’t know when the Thai Rose opened but I first visited during the Olympics in 2000, just before the Brazil v Cameroon game, the first time The Gabba was an Olympic venue maybe,” she said.
Ben Hackett from Elders Commercial, who held the lease for the former site of Thai Rose, said they were looking for either boutique retailers or a restaurant and bar to fill the vacancy.
Originally published as Qld restaurants and cafes to close in 2022 due to staff shortages and Covid
Homeless crisis could explode ahead of Brisbane Olympics
Queensland’s homelessness crisis could escalate without proper planning ahead of the 2032 Olympics with a “world first” housing report released in a bid to ease pressures.
Mediscare 2.0: Labor hits back at LNP’s mass text campaign
An LNP mass text campaign calling on voters to stop a so-called patients tax by changing the government has been slammed as dishonest. And now Labor has returned the favour.