Hobart cafes and restaurants: Five new venues locked in for CBD

A shift is afoot in Hobart’s CBD, with three new food and beverage offerings locked in to replace two shuttered cafes, with contracts signed for two other nearby iconic sites.

HOBART’S CBD is set for a boost with the Mercury able to reveal three new food and beverage offerings are locked in for a well-trodden thoroughfare outside a popular shopping centre.

The three new tenants are set to replace the former Artizan Specialty Coffee and Hudsons Coffee cafes on Liverpool St, outside the Woolworths shopping centre.

Knight Frank Commercial agent George Burbury said Artizan moved locations in April last year, while Hudsons Coffee also left the building in September.

Mr Burbury said both cafes had reached the end of their leases and did not want to renew.

He said the Hudsons Coffee tenancy was split in two to create three tenancies of about 75sqm, all of which had been leased with the fit-out under way.

Mr Burbury said that although he didn’t know the names of the businesses yet, shoppers could expect a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant, a juice and smoothie bar, and a “Melbourne-style” sandwich bar.

“We’re hoping to capitalise on foot traffic from the two nearby hospitals and nearby government offices,” Mr Burbury said.

Mr Burbury said some CBD food and beverage outfits were doing it tough with the foot traffic reduced by working from home, while other had managed to shift their business model.

“You speak to some food and beverage operators, they say their numbers are down, one in particular I am thinking of, a takeaway and coffee shop, they say they’re down 20 per cent,” he said.

“But you speak to others and they’re thriving.

“The key difference seems to be whether they have adopted online sales and delivery or whether they are just in-store.

“If you’re not online, you’re down, those adjusting to the current environment are thriving because they are having best of both worlds.”

It’s been a busy month for Knight Frank Commercial, with the firm just weeks away from being able to reveal more generational food and beverage change in Hobart.

Two iconic sites are currently under offer pending the drawing of a final contract.

The first is 217 Sandy Bay Rd, formerly The Metz Bar on the Bay and more recently Red Pot Chinese Hot Pot, which closed in the last few months.

The second is the Elizabeth St Mall corner tenancy formerly inhabited by Dome Cafe.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly claimed Artizan had closed. It in fact moved to 19 Liverpool St.