Adelaide restaurateur Simon Kardachi closes five venues
One of Adelaide’s top restaurateurs says he’s already closed five venues and there’s no guarantee they’ll be back.
SA News
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One of the state’s leading restaurateurs says “crippling” close contact isolation rules have cost his business $500,000 and forced him to close five venues – with no guarantee they will re-open.
Simon Kardachi, who owns top SA restaurants Fugazzi Bar and Dining Room, Shobosho and Osteria Oggi, said at least 13 hospitality venues in Adelaide’s West End have shut their doors in the past week due to stifling close-contact rules.
These rules force staff to isolate for seven days once a Covid positive case has attended a business.
Mr Kardachi said labour shortages made it impossible for venues to find new staff members to replace those in isolation.
He has written an open letter to Premier Steven Marshall imploring for an easing of exposure site restrictions and calling for financial support from the government.
“This last fortnight should be our busiest of the year. We have had a record number of customer cancellations, due to nervousness around Covid-19 and enforced isolation rules, making it our worst December trade in 22 years,” he wrote in a letter co-signed by 12 of his business partners.
“If there has been one positive case in a venue, the entire workforce for that business is classed as a close contact and must isolate for seven days, even if double-vaxxed and negative.
“I respect that the pandemic is not within the SA government’s control, but decisions have been made that have directly affected our ability to employ South Australians in the short term, and most likely in the longer term as well, crippling our businesses.”
Australian Hotels Association SA chief executive Ian Horne said the current situation was “worse than lockdown” for the hospitality sector.
“The close contact conditions are so severe, at least in lockdown there was JobKeeper. Now we’re in a perpetual ‘close, open, close’ cycle for the foreseeable future,” he said.
“You simply can’t operate a business like this for very long.”
The Restaurant and Catering Association said some businesses had lost up to 60 per cent of their usual Christmas revenue as people choose to stay home instead of risk becoming a Covid close contact.
Chief executive Wes Lambert said their industry’s busiest trading period had been thrown into “complete disarray”.
“A perfect storm is brewing. The double-whammy of mass cancellations in the lead-up to Christmas and having to shut down to get staff tested has the potential to wipe many businesses out,” he said.
“SA’s hospitality industry needs support now from the government more than ever if we hope to survive into the new year.”
Business SA Chair Nikki Govan said that as the list of exposure sites grew, so too did the list of businesses closing their doors.
“With staff sent into isolation, business owners have little choice but to forfeit what should be one of their busiest periods,” she said.
“On behalf of the South Australian business community, we welcomed the borders reopening. But as we see case numbers rapidly increasing, this leaves business owners with no staff and no choice but to close their doors.”
Mr Kardachi said the only viable way to keep trading would be to reduce opening hours, divide staff into two working teams, and test staff members on a daily basis which would cost $3500 a day, Mr Kardachi said.
“We are not ‘living with Covid’, we are being crippled by it, something that could have been prevented or at least delayed beyond this festive period,” he said.
“Without your government’s support we simply cannot continue to operate as South Australia’s leading hospitality group, which has created our city’s dynamic dining offering and drives tourism to this state, nor as one of South Australia’s leading employers.”
SA Treasurer Rob Lucas said there will be an “urgent review” of the definition of close and casual contacts at the next national cabinet meeting early in the new year.
“The government is certainly aware of the concerns raised by the industry,” he said.
“The broad issue is being considered by this government and the national government to try and get some greater consistency between the jurisdictions.”
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