Melbourne restaurant Longrain declares it has no future

Longrain owner John Van Haandel says ‘the industry has been broken for a long time’, declaring his restaurant won’t reopen.

Longrain in Melbourne won’t reopen. Picture: Longrain

In what is expected to be the first of many such closures, the COVID-19 crisis has claimed its first scalp in the restaurant industry with Melbourne stalwart Longrain confirming today it would not reopen.

Longrain is one of thousands of restaurants around the country that has been forced shut by the crisis.

It’s understood 40 staff were told today the restaurant would not be returning to business when restrictions on trading are finally lifted.

Lisa and John Van Haandel. Picture: Supplied

Longrain’s owner John Van Haandel said today rent renegotiations had been fruitless and that he and his wife Lisa had made the decision not to re-open, saying “the restaurant industry has been broken for a long time”.

“It’s was on its knees before this. We asked ourselves ‘what’s it going to look like, what’s going to happen if we do re-open’?” Mr Van Haandel said. “We’re a restaurant with eating bars and communal tables. We have a bar upstairs (Longsong) where people gather for drinks.”

He said that while trade pre-COVID had been excellent, profits were thin.

“The last 12 months have been amazing but everything that yellow isn’t necessarily gold.”

The original Longrain, in Sydney’s Surry Hills, closed in May 2019. Mr Van Haandel was not involved with the Sydney restaurant.

Mr Van Haandel and a syndicate of partners sold Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel in November for in excess of $100 million.

“We settled in February and the place has been more-or-less closed since. I dodged a bullet there.”

Longrain is believed to be just one of several restaurants to close. Picture: Longrain

Industry insiders believe there will be many, many more restaurants that officially fold before the COVID crisis is over.

One industry expert today Described a scenario of business owners borrowing money to get them through the closures only to resume training at some point in the future with social distancing rules leading to much lower turnover.

“They won’t be able to service the debt,” he said.

Another who spoke to The Australian off the record said: “Longgrain will unfortunately just be the first of many we’ll see fall over before this is all resolved.”