Adelaide’s Woodville Pizza Bar: Lockdown scapegoats picking up the pizzas

Australia’s most notorious pizza bar is back in business after its owners were publicly blamed for plunging two million South Australians into lockdown.

The Woodville Pizza Bar on day two of the South Australian COVID-19 six day lockdown. Picture Matt Turner.

Australia’s most notorious pizza bar is back in business and the two men who became public hate figures are quietly rebuilding their lives after being blamed for plunging two million South Australians into lockdown.

The Woodville Pizza Bar in Adelaide’s western suburbs was accused of forcing SA’s statewide six-day lockdown in November after two of its staff who were also working in hotel quarantine contracted Covid.

The restaurant was subjected to a full going-over by SA Police who set up a 20-officer task force and sequestered 400 hours of CCTV footage and seized staff mobiles amid wild claims across social media linking the pizza bar to organised crime, drug dealing and illegal work practices.

The investigation was closed in December with no criminality found and no charges brought against any of its staff.

The Australian can now reveal that the owner of the pizza bar is a decent and law-abiding young married father who emigrated to Australia from Iran, has no criminal record, and is now trying to revive a business which was nearly ruined by rumour.

“It was like going through hell,” the owner told The Australian in his first ever interview. “My wife and I found it all extremely hard, all the stress and attention. We just want to pretend it never happened to us. We were only just trying to make an honest living and keep our customers happy. The stories people said about us were terrible. I have never been in trouble for anything, never been charged with anything, I haven’t even had a speeding fine.”

The restaurant was subjected to a full going-over by SA Police who set up a 20-officer task force and seized staff mobiles amid wild claims across social media. Picture Matt Turner.

The treatment of the pizza bar owner is a disturbing example of how in the digital age people can be hung, drawn and quartered in the court of public opinion as baseless claims circulate online, the rumours spilling into mainstream media coverage and piling pressure on police as they strive to take an evidence-based approach.

As the pizza bar became the focus of the November lockdown, SA was abuzz over a mocked-up text message purporting to be a screen shot from a police officer’s phone documenting drug activity at the pizza bar. Invariably, the message came with the intro: “Got this from a mate who knows this cop.”

In addition, a raft of internet memes were doing the rounds holding the pizza bar up to ridicule, one promoting a drink offer: “Buy one pizza, get free Corona.” Its Google page was flooded with sham reviews giving its bat-flavoured and pangolin-flavoured pizza five stars, while others just left angry messages abusing the owner, saying they had not seen their grandchildren or missed funerals due to the lockdown.

On a more sinister level the pizza bar and its owner received death threats, forcing the man to close his social media accounts and shut down his business, which for several weeks was under police guard for fear of vandal attack and which is listed to this day on the iPhone maps app as “permanently closed”.

The owner said he did not wish to be named or photographed on account of those threats and the online abuse. He said that because of what happened last year he had also come to mistrust the media, even though he kindly offered to make us a free pizza which we politely declined given he’s lost enough money already.

An internet meme ridiculing Adelaide's Woodville Pizza Bar during the November Covid lockdown. Picture: Supplied

“We just want to get back with our lives,” the owner said while rolling out discs of dough for the evening’s orders. “I spent six years building up this business. I almost lost everything. We are lucky there are good people in this area. We have loyal customers who know we are just here making pizzas and that there is nothing else going on.”

The pizza bar was initially thrust into the spotlight when two of its staff – a Spanish national working as a kitchen hand who also worked in a quarantine hotel and a pizza delivery driver working as a security guard at the same hotel – both tested positive for COVID-19.

The Spaniard allegedly lied to health authorities and said he simply bought a pizza at the Woodville Pizza Bar, sparking fears he may have contracted the virus simply by handling a pizza box.

In the ensuing drama, SA was plunged into a snap six-day lockdown with Premier Marshall which was scrapped three days later when the so-called lie emerged.

Speaking exclusively to The Weekend Australian, the lawyer representing the Spaniard said his client was still in hiding as he awaited a ruling on extending his visa, revealing that the married 36-year-old student whose wife is also from Spain wanted to stay on and make his life in Adelaide.

Solicitor Scott Jelbert of Camena Legal also revealed that he held grave concerns about the police investigation and was still waiting on a freedom of information request to SA Health of his client’s interview which he believed may show he did nothing wrong.

His client has limited English and was only interviewed over the phone by SA Health about his working arrangements.

Mr Jelbert said his client may also have recourse for defamation action against Premier Steven Marshall for labelling him a liar and blaming the lockdown on the lie.

Lawyer Scott Jelbert from Camena Legal. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“The key point here is that regardless of whether me client lied or not, he was not the person who put South Australia into lockdown,” Mr Jelbert said. “That decision was made by the Police Commissioner with the support of the Premier and my client became the public scapegoat as a result.”

Mr Jelbert said his client was extremely remorseful about the chaos that unfolded last November and still worried that people would regard him as a pariah.

“He is still not going out in public, he is still very apprehensive and in my opinion, rightly so,” Mr Jelbert said.

“He is concerned that in the industry it will affect him. It will be fairly easy for his employers to recognise a young Spanish male working in hospitality in Adelaide. A lot of people will think ‘Oh, it’s that guy from the pizza bar.’ For him it’s a real concern. His fear is that people have made up their minds and are seeking to validate their opinions about him.

“There is so much misinformation and so much missing information that it created a perfect storm for rumours and conspiracy. In my view the way the government handled it only encouraged that kind of rumour. It was so obvious we were going to have a lockdown anyway.”

Back on Woodville Rd, neighbouring businesses are just happy life has now returned to normal.

Hairdresser Lisa Rizonico’s business is next door to the pizza bar and shares a common staff bathroom and was forced to close for two weeks in November to undergo deep cleaning.

“I must admit that I was surprised a few weeks ago when I saw the open sign being put out next door,” Ms Rizonico said. “But good luck to him. He seems like a nice guy. I wish him well.”