Warm welcome back on a multitude of menus

An odd thing happened in Sydney on Sunday: chefs got out of bed, pulled on their checked pants and went in to work.

North Bondi Fish general manager Jack James Steer and head chef Stefano Mondonico. Picture: Jane Dempster

An odd thing happened in Sydney on Sunday: chefs got out of bed, pulled on their checked pants and went in to work.

Not all of them, mind … but in kitchens across the city, men and women got down to the business of sorting deliveries and preparing produce ahead of firing up the burners and opening restaurant doors on Monday.

“We’re anticipating being really busy,” says restaurant tsar Matt Moran, whose North Bondi Fish is one of several in his group opening. “I think a lot of people will stop cooking at home and just get out there as much as they possibly can.

“I know people who have made bookings for every weekend for the rest of the year.

“Our main concern is staff; we’ve lost a few and we may have to even restrict bookings until we are comfortable with staff levels we’ve got … At the same time, we haven’t been open for four months so we kind of need that restriction anyway. A lot of people haven’t been working so it’s nice just to ease into it.”

A significant number of Sydney restaurants is expected to reopen this week, with even more planning to dust down the decanters from Tuesday next.

After 108 days of lockdown, hospitality venues will be allowed to reopen, with one person per 4sq m allowed inside and one person per 2sq m outside. Drinking while standing will be allowed outside. Only fully vaccinated staff will be allowed to work in restaurants and only fully vaccinated customers will be allowed inside.

Merivale boss Justin Hemmes is a happy man. “We are just so happy to be opening doors,” says Hemmes, who runs one of Australia’s largest privately owned restaurant and pub empires, “but unfortunately for a lot of venues it won’t be a profitable situation.

“But we need to build momentum and get people back into work and back into their jobs and we need to get the economy rolling.”

Erika Haudebeault at The Glenmore in The Rocks. Picture: Ryan Osland

Hemmes says it won’t be until the further easing of restrictions on December 1 when the 80 per cent vaccination rate is reached that financially viability kicks in. Nevertheless, the company has about 25 venues putting out the shingle on Monday, and a further 15 by Wednesday.

By December, Hemmes expects to have his entire team - some 3500 people - back to work.

Hemmes says retraining staff, recruitment, getting systems up and running and re-establishing supply chains will be challenging.

“Obviously there’s a shortage of staff in the industry and we are also waiting for a number of staff to get their second vax,” he said.

The vast majority of Merivale staff, he says, support working in a totally vaccinated workplace.

At the other end of the business spectrum, Greg Bampton and two chef mates opened a small food and wine bar in inner-city Surry Hills - Bar Suze - three months before the current lockdown began. Whatever staff they had then have gone, he says, and replacing them is proving very difficult.

“There was already a staff problem; we were just making do with friends and family filling in before the shutdown.”

Yet Mr Bampton is determined to open on Monday night with just his partners, if necessary.

“We’ll cut back on a lot of things – the boys in the kitchen will have to run food – but we are going to make it work. We’re not going to sit back and wait.”