Coronavirus: shutdown serves up a second course of pain for Melbourne restaurants

Melbourne’s restaurant community reacted with dismay to news of the imminent stage three lockdown restrictions.

Chef and restaurant operator Guy Grossi.

Melbourne’s restaurant community reacted with dismay to news of the imminent stage three lockdown restrictions, which will close the doors at the city’s diners just a month after they were allowed to reopen.

“It is a bitter pill to swallow,” said restaurateur David Mackintosh, a shareholder in a number of successful ventures including SPQR Pizzeria and Lee Ho Fook.

He said the industry would experience “fresh tragedy, fresh failure and fresh rounds of distress”.

“When we were shut down in March, we knew very little about the virus,” he said. “The whole community accepted that sacrifices needed to be made and that we were in it together.

“The tragedy about this second wave is that despite the sacrifices made, the pain and the well-publicised losses of businesses, some in our community have ­decided that the requests to be careful and respect the wellbeing of others did not apply to them.”

Guy Grossi, a chef and restaurant operator whose family runs six eateries including the storied Florentino on Bourke Street, said the latest blow would especially hurt anyone “close to the edge”.

He said the second shutdown was unsurprising. “As the numbers have grown … you could see that the writing was on the wall,” Mr Grossi said.

“(But) governments have to do what’s best … it’s too easy to fly off the handle and criticise. There’s a bigger cause here.”

Melbourne’s restaurants were allowed to reopen on June 1 with a maximum of 20 patrons at one time. It was only three weeks ago that Victoria increased the number of people allowed in cafes, pubs and restaurants to 50.

Jason Lui, general manager of Cantonese institution Flower Drum, said he’d do things differently this time. “This time we’ll keep the doors open and do takeaway. We didn’t first time round. Guys on JobKeeper will stay on. The students and casuals will do a few shifts. But basically it means we’re scrambling again.

“I kind of saw it coming; it was only a matter of time. It’s frustrating and surreal at the same time.”

It will be no easier in the suburbs, says restaurateur Angie Gia­nnakodakis of Carlton’s Epocha.

“The industry has been making money out of the community,” she said. “Right now I’m really not concerned about making a profit. I’m more concerned about just breaking even and coming back with a model that puts something back into the community.”