‘Help us’: Sydney restaurant’s heartbreaking social media plea to customers

A Sydney restaurant’s heartbreaking social media plea amid mounting Covid case numbers has prompted a surprising response from customers.

A Sydney restaurant’s heartbreaking social media plea has exposed the true cost of the Omicron wave as case numbers continue to surge in the community.

On Friday, Spice Bazaar, an Indian restaurant based in Narrabeen on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, begged for customers to come along.

“Hi everybody, it’s a Friday night and should have been our busiest night,” the wife and husband duo, Nirup Prabakaran and Praba Rajabathar, posted on a local Facebook page.

“4-5 customers today and quite demoralising that it has come to this.

“After 22 years of operating in the same spot, I can say in all honesty that we have never faced this dilemma. I request everyone to encourage us and help us stay afloat. Give Indian food a go, we do prepare good food.”

The couple, who have been living on the Northern Beaches for 26 years, told news.com.au they were better off during Sydney’s 106-day lockdown compared to what they are experiencing right now in what has been dubbed a “shadow lockdown”.

This social media post broke the hearts of locals.

“It seems to me now, that it is a much bigger loss than during the lockdown,” Nirup told news.com.au.

“We’re worse off now than what it was before.”

Revenue was down 56 per cent for the small business in the winter 2021 lockdown, but she now estimates that number to be even higher. To make matters worse, there is no government help this time around.

In previous times of Covid-induced struggles, the coupke qualified for the JobSaver program and also received a $10,500 business grant for other outstanding costs.

“We did receive assistance, without which we would have had to close down,” she said.

However, after their online appeal to locals, something surprising happened over the weekend.

Nirup made the social media post hoping to catch the eye of her regular customers, some of whom she hadn’t seen for a while.

But instead, unfamiliar faces started walking through her restaurant’s doors on Saturday night.

“There was a lot of people that were there and had never been to the shop before. [They] saw my Facebook post and came in,” she recounted.

“Everybody that came in mentioned the Facebook post.

“One family said they never eaten Indian food before, they had young kids, they probably didn’t like Indian but [they made a big order].”

Such was the demand that the restaurant ran out of lamb, beef and chicken — although she said they had less than they normally did because of supply chain issues.

“Hospitality is a very harsh line of work to do, it’s physical, it’s long hours, you’re standing in 40 degree heat, a very unforgiving line to be in, but over the weekend, it made it all just worth it,” Nirup added.

“It was heartwarming.”

The Indian restaurant has been struggling this month amid record Covid case numbers.

In another stroke of good luck, on Sunday, the NSW government announced financial support for struggling businesses.

The NSW government unveiled its $1 billion economic support packages for small and medium sized businesses, which it will fund alone despite asking the commonwealth to contribute.

This new support package targets small and medium businesses that have had at least a 40 per cent downturn over the summer period, covering 20 per cent of their wages bill to a maximum of $5000.

Nirup expects that spice Bazaar will qualify for the government assistance.

Unfortunately, it only applies for February onwards and the assistance paid will not be back-paid for January.

The amount of support for small businesses would have been doubled if the Morrison government had chipped in.

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean took aim at his federal counterparts while making the announcement, saying he was “very disappointed” they had declined the request for assistance.

“I was hoping to make this announcement standing beside Prime Minister (Scott Morrison) today and the Treasurer (Josh) Frydenberg. But they’re not to be found,” he told reporters.

“These are not just NSW businesses, they’re Australian businesses, that pay their taxes to the commonwealth government, that are doing it so tough at this time.”

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