Eagle St fine diners closed in CBD ghost town

Despite restrictions easing to allow a small number of diners back in their doors, Brisbane CBD restaurants are operating in a ‘ghost town’.

AFTERNOON is fading to dusk at Brisbane’s premier riverside dining hub and the balconies usually packed with end-of-the-week merrymakers are deserted.

The Eagle Street precinct’s river-view bars and restaurants, normally filling with city corporates knocking off for Friday after-work drinks, are mostly closed.

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Char Char’s, Blackbird, Friday’s, Jelly Riverbar, Mr & Mrs G, Char Char Char, Rico, George’s Paragon, Pony, Sake and The Bavarian are all locked up.

The Pig ‘N’ Whistle and and Navala is open for business.

At Eagle St Pier, The Coffee Club was open but closed at 2.30pm, and Grill’d, Guzman Y Gomez and Eat Sushi, which face Eagle St, were all trading.

Jade Buddha worker Jaelle Winter and owner Gary Hogan. Picture: Ellen-Maree Elliot

On the riverfront, the only signs of life are at Jade Buddha, which is at its 10 customer limit capacity, as patrons enjoy unimpeded access to the views and full table service.

Owner Gary Hogan said on a normal late Friday afternoon they would have “easily, 100 people and by 5 o’clock we might have 500 between the two floors”.

“All of us, along the whole pier, especially us, Riverbar, The Bavarian, Friday’s, Blackbird just between those five venues you’d have thousands.

Rico closed at the deserted Eagle St Pier. Picture: Ellen-Maree Elliot

“And now, we’ve got 10 out at a time.

“By this time on a Friday we’d have 152 seats on the deck, they’d all be full, and the big angst we get is that people want those seats.

“Now it doesn’t matter, if you’re here you’re getting one of those seats with the incredible view and incredible service.”

The Mr and Mrs G Riverbar late on Friday afternoon. Picture: Ellen-Maree Elliot

He said the lockdown period had been “surreal” with the Brisbane CBD a “ghost town” — “it’s not unlike what it felt like in the floods (in 2011)”.

Level 1 of Eagle St Pier, home to Sake and George’s Paragon Seafood Restaurant, is completely closed. Picture: Ellen-Maree Elliot

Jade Buddha reopened its doors when the Queensland Government allowed dine-in and introduced takeaway as well.

“We’re not going to particularly make any profit at the moment.

“But this environment is going to stay quite fundamentally different for a long time, so we thought it was a good idea to just get back into it.

“Our expectation is trade won’t get back to normal. Not this year.”

He said he would welcome an increase of allowed patrons, similar to the NSW Government allowing 50 from June 1, but said Queensland had always done things differently.

He said his second customers through the door were Queensland opposition leader Deb Frecklington with her husband.

“That was awesome, she was lovely,” Mr Hogan said.

The entrance to Friday's, at Eagle St, cordoned off. Picture: Ellen-Maree Elliot

While a few other riverfront venues were open, Mr Hogan said the CBD remained “a ghost town”.

“It is weird,” he said.

“There’s people out walking on the Riverwalk, here it’s OK, but you go to Eagle St and it’s like Armageddon after 5 o’clock, no-one’s there.”

At the Riverside Centre Food court Hustl N Grind owner Rowan Lynam and two staff have closed for the day.

The seating areas have been closed off at Eagle St Pier. Picture: Ellen-Maree Elliot

“It’s like a ghost town,” he said.

“We’ve gone from having 10,000 people in both of these buildings (Riverside Centre and One One One) to less than 500 between them — sometimes nobody comes out of the offices.”

Mr Lynam said it was “relaxing, but in a bad way” with the eateries in the up-market food court “fighting for scraps”.

“Sales have obviously fallen off a cliff,” he said.

He said sales had begun to pick back up as restrictions eased but it was still slow.

The other shops in the food court, Zambrero, Little Saigon Grill, Hive and Sushi, are all trading.