Brisbane restaurateur Andrew Baturo says industry must battle back after ‘worst’ start to 2022

The owner of several popular Brisbane dining and bar venues says 2022 already feels like one of the worst years in hospitality history, but he’s still optimistic for the future.

Andrew Baturo is the owner of Naga Thai in Brisbane’s CBD, which lost stock, equipment and furniture in the floods, and is still without power meaning they can’t reopen. He is also the owner of Libertine in Petrie Terrace and co-owner of Popolo, South Brisbane, and Walters and The Gresham in Brisbane’s CBD.

Here he expresses in his own words how hospitality is coping with this latest disaster.

The record-breaking floods of 2022 have added another shitty, silty, muddy layer of heartbreak to the beginning of what already feels like one of the worst years in hospitality history. And we are only 70 days in.

Over the past 10 weeks or so there’s been Covid clusters that ripped through communities, throwing people into week-long isolation. Businesses whose staff were impacted and rendered unable to trade because they simply didn’t have enough employees to operate.

Andrew Baturo says his Naga Thai restaurant has lost stock, furniture and equipment and can't reopen until the power is restored. Picture: John Gass

Guests staying away from venues in droves in order to keep themselves and their families safe and healthy, a situation exacerbated by directives to ‘STAY-AT-HOME!’

There’s anxiety about rising prices, imminent inflation and looming interest rate hikes. There are supply chain issues and concerns about what this all means for the future of our industry.

As we speed ahead into 2022, we could be forgiven for thinking of giving up. That there’s only so much more that we can take as an industry and as individuals. That what we have had to endure is unfair. Not to mention we have now been almost hardwired to accept and expect a high level of uncertainty.

But I feel like there is certainty.

I am certain that our industry will heal and strengthen. I am certain that things will get better. I am certain that our colleagues will rally and support each other and their communities – as they always have.

Hospitality has had a blowtorch held to it over the last couple of years. We have been singed, scorched, seared and scalded. But instead of burning to the ground we are poised, ready to shine brighter than ever.

At some point things have to get better. So why can’t that be next week, or tomorrow, or even today?

I’m not spent, I’m energised and I’m excited because hope is just ahead.

I’ve always been optimistic but I’m much more resilient now.

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