Nem on Mitchell: Vietnamese restaurant to open in Bendigo

A new Vietnamese restaurant is filling one of 60 empty shopfronts in Bendigo as others languish under the pressure of the pandemic.

An Echuca Vietnamese restaurant is moving to the heart of Bendigo to fill one of the almost 60 empty shopfronts in the region.

Nem on Mitchell will take over the former The Epicurean Delicatessen shopfront after the Italian deli closed last month following 15 years of trading.

Nem Vietnamese Street Food owner Hue Hoang, a mum from Echuca-Moama, said her business would offer “a slice of North Vietnam” when it opened in the middle of August.

The fully-licenced restaurant will serve “the daily basics from the streets of Hanoi” including pho and nem, a type of North Vietnamese spring roll.

Ms Hoang said it had been a whirlwind seven months after leaving Echuca-Moama, opening her Kennington business, Nem Vietnamese Street Food, and now taking on the Bendigo lease.

Bendigo resident Hue Hoang has taken over the former The Epicurean Delicatessen shop and plans to open a North Vietnamese restaurant Nem on Mitchell. Picture: Zizi Averill

“It’s very exciting,” Ms Hoang said.

“But if I don’t do it now, when?”

Ms Hoang said she left Echuca-Moama to avoid border closures in the Victorian and NSW communities where she had businesses on either side of the Murray River.

She said it was exhausting running between the two which is why her family decided to sell and move.

“Coming from a border town we were experiencing the lockdown from the two states,” Ms Hoang said.

“We wanted to move somewhere without the hassle of crossing the border,” she said.

“I felt so welcomed in Bendigo, people have come to us encouraging us.”

Barry Plant Bendigo chief operating officer Anita Harrington said the turnaround of the new lease of the Mitchell St shopfront was “exceptional” as neighbouring properties continued to languish.

An empty retail space at 7 Mitchell St, Bendigo in January 2021. Picture: Zizi Averill

Ms Harrington said she had received four offers for the site.

But that enthusiams is not shared for nearby properties, she said, with many shopfronts in the CBD and surrounds vacant.

There were 57 retail properties on the rental market across Greater Bendigo in July, according to Real Commercial data.

Most empty shops were in the Hargreaves Mall, with 15 rental listings in the shopping district and connected Killians Walk and Centreway Arcade walkways.

There were another nine empty lots along Pall Mall, and five listings on Mitchell St.

Ms Harrington said Hargreaves Mall was one of the most difficult retail spaces to fill with some of the properties remaining empty for the past 12 to 18 months.

The commercial real estate agent said low foot traffic, limited city parking, higher rents and the lack of weather protection for shoppers made the area unattractive to new businesses.

Ms Harrington said rival retail spaces in Kangaroo Flats were filled quickly, largely because of the improved parking options and lower rents.

But she said the biggest killer of rental interest was the Covid pandemic.

Ms Harrington said expansions, new locations or big moves were put in the “too hard basket” for many Bendigo-based businesses because of the fear of new lockdowns.

“We have a lot of well-established Bendigo businesses who are scared about making that commitment financially,” she said.

“It’s the uncertainty of ‘Do we head down this (lockdown) path?’.”

“It’s the fear it would jeopardise other aspects of their business.”

Ms Harrington said local retailers were expanding digitally, with many adopting online stores to complement their brick and mortar stores.