Owners of cafes and restaurants were thrilled to see people return at the weekend
Greek, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine were just some of the eateries which gladly flung their doors open this weekend after weeks of COVID-19 enforced lockdown.
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Restaurants and cafes opening up their tables for the first time in eight weeks at the weekend had two special dishes on the menu — relief and gratitude.
Patron numbers may have been limited to 10 but an enthusiastic public response buoyed business owners who have been doing it tough since coronavirus restrictions were introduced in April.
Across Sydney eager diners flocked to support their favourite eateries – Parramatta’s Phillip St and Church St was a snapshot of the reinvigoration with dozens of cafes and shops open yesterday.
Among them was Little Greece, a gyros and souvlaki bar operated by Laky Koumpridis and his wife Maria.
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Mr Koumpridis 49, said it was “such a relief” to reinstate seated dining from Friday and the increase of families and shoppers crowding on to Parramatta’s high streets once more was something for small businesses like his “to be grateful for”.
“At 12:30 (on Sunday) our shop and outside was full, people were lining up and waiting for our food,” Mr Koumpridis said.
“We definitely had more business, it’s a relief to have people coming back and queuing up to sit down. The community support has been so positive.”
Thai La-Ong co-owner Eagle Patanan said he’d had to “cut back a lot” on staff hours including his own due to the pandemic but it had been “really good” to begin offering normal sit-down service once again.
“It’s really good the community is willing to support small businesses like ours, they came back straight away as soon as we had tables,” Mr Patanan said.
“We’ve survived because of delivery orders, but we’ve had so many phone calls from customers trying to book a table, it’s been amazing.”
Health Minister Brad Hazzard sounded a sobering note warning restaurants and cafes should help patrons observe social-distancing rules by spacing out dining areas.
“I am concerned as health minister that people have had that ‘bust out’ mentality, but haven’t thought through the consequences,” he said. “To people who are conducting the cafes and restaurants: please also exercise care and caution when you’re putting the chairs out around the tables, if you could, to space them a little further apart.”
CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia Peter Strong said social-distancing rules would be a continuing problem for some small businesses.
“You can’t have a consumer walking into a shop that says four people only, making it five, and then a regulator fines the business or closes it down, when it’s the consumer that’s caused that problem,” he said. “The businesses have got to follow the rules, but so do employees, and so do consumers. We’re all part of this.”
He said the post-GFC effect wiped out 200,000 existing businesses and 100,000 new ventures in 2009/2010 alone, which “gives an indication of what we might be looking at” as the pandemic smashes the economy.