Melbourne’s restaurateurs call for Andrews’ government to rethink lockdown roadmap

Melbourne’s top chefs are calling Premier Daniel Andrews’ roadmap out of lockdown a “death sentence”.

Melbourne restaurateur Scott Pickett says the extension of Victoria’s lockdown is ‘potentially catastrophic’ and risks making the state a laughing stock. Picture: Paul Jeffers

Carnage in the restaurant industry will continue well into 2021 as a result of Victoria’s extended lockdown, according to the industry’s peak body.

Wes Lambert, CEO of Restaurant & Catering Australia, has told The Australian that under the proposals outlined on Sunday, hospitality industry businesses that rely on a profitable pre-Christmas season to make it through an entire financial year will have no chance.

“The exodus from our industry will continue well into 2021,” Mr Lambert said.

“We are bitterly disappointed that the road map is not in line with other east coast states.

“The hospitality industry did what was asked of it … We are grateful that there is a road map … but the Victorian state government will have to inject cash for restaurants to survive.

“Many didn’t reopen because they were waiting for the cap of 50. Many now won’t make it.”

Restaurateurs spoken to by The Australian condemned the extended restrictions.

Respected Melbourne restaurant operator Scott Pickett said the Premier’s announcement had “delivered another three months of pain”.

“We have to pivot our business model and look at ways to survive,” he said.

He said he would have preferred the current lockdown be extended for two or three weeks rather than a potentially “catastrophic” wait until October for restaurants to be reassessed.

“My fear is we’re the laughing stock of Australia and the rest of the world.”

Prominent Melbourne restaurant operator Chris Lucas, who also operates restaurants in Sydney, has been a vocal critic of the Andrews government during the COVID crisis.

He said the Victorian government had consigned the hospitality industry to a “death sentence”.

“Unless he’s prepared to listen to (our) industry which has for months put forward proper, functional plans that work, and strike the right balance between public health and commercial reality, then he will need to inject some serious funding immediately to avoid losing 150,000 hospitality jobs and avoid closing a great deal of Melbourne’s restaurants,” he said.

Another prominent Melbourne restaurateur, Guy Grossi, said “we need to learn how to live with the virus. We are never going to get down to zero cases; there is no zero with anything else.

“Sustainable businesses that were doing okay, that were surviving, will not. What are we going to be left with? Desolate wasteland. We don’t want to risk anybody’s health but we do want to work. There are kids out there who work for me who can’t put food on the table and I feel f..king awful about it.”

In the tourism region of Daylesford, 90 minutes outside Melbourne, restaurateur and hotelier Alla Wolf-Tasker told The Australian: “We’ve hung in there for now but I’m not sure how much longer we can. The banks keep offering us money and we keep borrowing.”

Wolf-Tasker said her business was down $6m in revenue over the same period last year.

“All our staff are career hospitality people ... they are asking what they’re going to do next ... But you know the business is bleeding, the region is bleeding, and the industry is bleeding and it takes a lot of energy to talk to staff on a daily basis about their future and their careers.

Melbourne restaurateur Ronnie di Stasio said the worst was yet to come with people waiting until JobKeeper ended to close their doors permanently. “Why did Andrews say ‘that restaurant dining was safer than family gatherings’ and then proceed to do the opposite?”