Coronavirus: new pub and restaurant rules ‘too restrictive’

Pubs, cafes and restaurants could safely cater for more customers than the Andrews government’s new rules allow, they say.

An Uber Eats rider delivers a meal to a customer. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Pubs, cafes and restaurants could safely cater for more customers than the Andrews government’s new rules allow, giving them a better chance at financial survival after months of closure, they say.

From Wednesday, pubs and restaurants will be entitled to host a maximum of 50 customers outside and 20 customers inside, and provided COVID-19 daily case numbers stay low, from November 8 the maximum numbers increase to 70 outside and 40 inside.

These numbers are subject to “density limits”, which restrict customers in restaurants, cafes and pubs to a maximum of 10 a room.

A single-room restaurant or cafe will be able to have a maximum of 10 diners, even after Nov­ember 8.

“The rules announced are simply not viable for the majority of restaurants,” said Chris Lucas, chief executive of Lucas Restaurant Group, which owns Chin Chin among others.

“We told the government the limit of 10 customers per space is too restrictive, and we really needed that to be 20 per space as a starting number, before moving to 50 per cent restaurant capacity before December, our busiest time.

“While many restaurants will attempt to open, it will be loss-making, and we really can’t re-employ our workforce until those capacity limits are increased to 20 per room,” Mr Lucas said.

For Melbourne restaurateur Joseph Vargetto, the imminent easing of restrictions is a double-edged sword. With a small, one-space CBD restaurant in Melbourne’s legal district, Masi, there is no opening date in sight.

Mr Vargetto says he has no outdoors capacity and at 10 “per space”, even the November 8 relaxation makes opening “uncommercial … my clients aren’t coming in to their offices, city apartments are vacant. I’d like to open before Christmas but at this stage, no.”

Australian Hotels Association Victoria president David Canny said the government’s announcement showed it didn’t trust pubs to operate safely in a pandemic, and wouldn’t save hotels from heavy debts accrued over recent months.

“The government needs to have greater trust in us and our patrons in adhering to COVID-safe operating plans,” he said.

Mr Canny said pubs could have operated in a COVID-safe way at 25 per cent capacity initially, moving to 50 per cent in two weeks.

“This is a reasonable and responsible start for the government to allow our pubs to work towards breaking even,” he said.

Guy Grossi, owner of Grossi Florentino restaurant in Melbourne’s Collins Street, said he was “relieved” to be reopening from Friday. “Finally we can start the work we need to do to rebuild this great city,” Mr Grossi said.

Hotelier Rabih Yanni, who operates Botanical in South Yarra, said the 20 person maximum was 5  er cent of his capacity.

“As a hotelier, I’ve got a predicament beyond the commercial. There are people who have been coming here to drink for 40 years. Who am I to say who can come in for a drink and who can’t? To say ‘No, you can’t come in because our capacity is 20 per venue’? “This is a local hotel. My role is to navigate community expectation.”

Geoff Lindsay, who runs Dandelion in Elwood, said he was in a buoyant mood as he prepared for a reopening, most likely Thursday.

“We’re very, very happy to be reopening … It has felt like death by a thousand cuts,’’ he said. “I still think this idea about outside dining for Melbourne restaurants is fundamentally flawed because the weather is so unreliable.”