Regional Victorian restaurants preparing for summer boom
New beer gardens, footpath dining, rooftop bars and alfresco areas are just some of the ways regional restaurants are ramping up for a big summer hinged on Victoria’s coronavirus figures staying under control.
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Regional restaurants are ready for a big summer – come rain, hail and shine.
Many owners used the enforced second lockdown to prepare their venues for a “covid-safe” summer, including expanding outdoor areas and creating new alfresco dining spaces.
At Ms Batterhams in Bendigo, which opened just before the first lockdown in March, new streetside dining has been installed, while popular Castlemaine brewery Shedshaker has increased its outdoor area to safely cater for double the number of patrons.
Other venues, such as Queenscliff’s 360Q, have made their existing outdoor areas weather-proof, while a number of regional venues, including the Porstea Pub, have incorporated contactless ordering and payment technology into their infrastructure.
Ms Batterhams’ Rhianwen Seiter said now regional Victoria was out of lockdown there was a “bit of buzz” around Bendigo, especially when the weather was good.
“People are coming out, travelling regionally. We’ve had people from Mansfield, Geelong, Pt Londsale. And once Melbourne opens up, it will be a regional boom. People are eager to explore their back yard.”
As well as increasing the number of people they could serve, the footpath dining area helped alert passers-by the restaurant was open, she said.
She said gaining the necessary permits and liquor licensing for their new outdoor spaces, which also includes a new rooftop beer garden, was easy and efficient.
“Everyone is acting really quickly, the licensing commission really made themselves available, the council was really prompt and supportive. They’re really trying to help businesses get up and running,” she said.
Shedshaker Brewery owner Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns was similarly impressed with the support she received from local government, with extra staff employed to help businesses adapt and permits being issued on the spot to allow outdoor trading.
She said the extension to the brewery’s outdoor area was in direct response to the pandemic, using the lockdown period through winter as an opportunity to ensure patrons were covid safe in summer. They also have plans to build an outdoor stage for music and events.
“The weather is a problem, but Victorians love being outdoors,” she said. “The long-range forecast into summer isn’t great but we’ll be adapting, we’ll make it work.”
Queenscliff’s 360Q owner Barry Iddles said that due to border restrictions he was hopeful the peak summer period would extend much longer than the traditional four-week holiday this year.
“Summer is our boomtime, but I believe it will stretch out for months due to border restrictions,” he said.
Restaurant and Catering CEO Wes Lambert said regional venues were responding creatively to the challenge of predominantly trading outdoors during spring and summer.
“The weather has not been the best, but venues are coming up with solutions,” he said. “From marquees to theatres, all possible ways to trade outside are being created.”
He said the association welcomed the road map for reopening regional Victoria and “any movement forward is in the right direction”.
“We’ll continue to lobby the government to use a commonsense approach and not rely on a five or zero-case threshold to reopening. As the NSW premier has said, that is just not possible in a pandemic,” he said.
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