Coronavirus: northern beaches pubs, restaurants fight back
Some of the northern beaches’ top venues say they are adapting fast to the coronavirus crisis to try and stay afloat, with one prestigious restaurant looking to start home deliveries.
Manly
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Northern beaches pubs and restaurants say they are desperately trying to adapt fast in a bid to save jobs and keep their businesses afloat during the coronavirus crisis.
The government has set new restrictions for venues including restricting the number of indoor patrons to 100 and 500 for outdoor venues, as well as social distancing.
But in other countries such as Italy and France, bars and restaurants have been forced to close.
Marilyn Annecchini who co-owns own Pilu with her chef husband Giovanni, said she’s been putting on a brave face for their 70 staff but she has had to cut casual shifts.
She said they had been brainstorming and were working fast to start a delivery service this weekend.
They were already offering fresh pasta to takeaway.
And she said she wanted people to know their venues at Freshwater and Harbord Diggers are still open.
“All our venues are open with lots of double spacing and we’ve been cleaning and disinfecting,” she said.
“We have hand sanitisers drilled into the wall.
“Our restaurants are big so we have plenty of space and an outdoor area too.”
She said the Kiosk — the small cafe attached to the restaurant at Freshwater — was very busy this week perhaps because it is being seen as a “safer option” because it is outdoors.
She made a plea to northern beaches residents to support local businesses at this time and said that while the government’s stimulus package will help, the hospitality industry needs a cash injection like the airlines and a rent abatement to survive this crisis.
Paul Talbot duty manager at Hotel Steyne was on the floor yesterday and said they had moved tables further apart and introduced card-only payments at all bars apart from the sports bar.
He said he had been forced to cut casual shifts and further staff cuts were inevitable.
Meanwhile, owner of Hugos Manly Dave Evans, who has cut his Canadian ski trip short and is due back in the country tonight, said via email that the venue on Manly Wharf was still open for business and if the crisis worsens he would look at home delivery, using his staff to do the deliveries.
But in the meantime, customers can also pick up takeaway food directly, as well as still eat in.
In terms of patrons he said they had seen a slight decrease in customer numbers since the weekend.
“We have reduced the amount of tables in the restaurant and number of guests we will allow at our cocktail bar, which therefore enables Hugos to enforce safe social distancing requirements,” he said.
“We are also witnessing great support from the local community as they trust the Hugos team to be taking all health and safety precautions due to the COVID-19.”
Mackellar MP Jason Falinski said there was support for small businesses and there would be more to come.
“This is fast moving and we need to calibrate which I get is uncomfortable for everyone involved, especially when we all just want certainty,” he said.
“Industry super funds should be following the banks in providing rent relief.
“We have brought in a series of measures to smooth cash flows and there will be more on the way.
“We need to minimise the pandemic and nullify the panic.”