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Victor Supper Club: Albury Wodonga restaurant closes after border closures, bushfires

An Albury Wodonga chef has been forced to close his popular border-town restaurant afte three decades. This is why.

Carlos Saliba, owner and head chef at Victor Supper Club.
Carlos Saliba, owner and head chef at Victor Supper Club.

A popular Albury Wodonga restaurant has closed it doors after more than 30 years.

Victor Supper Club served it’s last patrons on February 27 after the affects of bushfires and border closures proved too much to keep the business open.

Owner and head chef Carlos Saliba had run Cafe Victor in Albury for 30 years before moving the expanding business to the old St Ives Hotel on Gateway Island renaming it Victor Supper Club in 2019.

Mr Saliba said the recent five-day “circuit breaker” lockdown which killed the Valentine’s Day trade was the final straw.

He said the border checkpoint had been right outside their doorstep just weeks earlier.

“It left us very angry, we thought ‘this is bulls---’,” Mr Saliba said.

“The tennis can go on, but businesses who are putting a lot of blood in there aren't allowed to operate.

“There’s a list of things that went wrong in hindsight.

“The way (the government) dealt with us, they totally ignored us.

“They just said ‘hang in there’.”

Mr Saliba said he had not planned to take on another business venture just yet.

“I just need to get myself sorted,” he said.

“I’m exhausted from everything that’s happened.”

The NSW/Victorian border check point was located right outside the Victor Supper Club when the border closed on New Year‘s Day.
The NSW/Victorian border check point was located right outside the Victor Supper Club when the border closed on New Year‘s Day.

After operating businesses in both Albury and Wodonga, Mr Saliba said the two cities really did operate as one and, by closing the border, the NSW and Victorian governments had “castrated” the community.

“The fact that they extended the state of emergency until the end of the year, what‘s to stop them from having a border shut down when we have major events going on?” he said.

“(The government) could do a lot of stuff. They need to listen to the area here, they’re neglected.

“The local MPs are powerless in a sense, apart from putting their concerns to the government, but nothing has been done.

“We’ve been left as statistics.

Mr Saliba said the NSW and Victorian governments needed to pay more attention to the border towns.

“There are many issues and the two states could get their s--- together and solve it,” he said.

“They need to have long term planning for the two towns, that the two governments can commit to, and stop playing politics.”

cassandra.glover@news.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/albury-wodonga/victor-supper-club-albury-wodonga-restaurant-closes-after-border-closures-bushfires/news-story/0ac97f55ff2d360b8ec6546d10482e52