Empty chairs at empty tables as virus rules make life tough for smaller venues

Coronavirus restrictions have been eased, but a local hospitality operator says it has done little to ease the pain of small venues.

INFLEXIBLE coronavirus restrictions are making life more difficult for small venues as they struggle to recover from the shutdown, a local hospitality operator says.

Emma Davis, who runs the popular Raincheck Lounge and hip Salamanca bar Society, says bars and restaurants have been allowed to reopen with 80 patrons at any one time — but the figure is capped at one person for every four square metres of venue space.

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Ms Davis said the size of her venues meant far fewer people were allowed in.

“Turnover is down. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue since March,” she said.

“There’s no way we can operate normally. We normally run trivia night on Wednesday and we can’t do it, we can’t do functions.

“As soon as we say we’re sorry we can only serve 20, people say ‘no, thanks’. We’re turning people away constantly. It’s really difficult to communicate that rule to people because they don’t understand, and some venues aren’t enforcing it.”

Society bar owner Angela Nichols behind the bar at the Salamanca venue. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Ms Davis said most people were of the belief that things were returning to normal and were keen to get out and spend money.

“I’m still happy to do the one and a half metre between tables, but when you have people coming in in groups, which most of the time people are, we have to turn them away.

“If we can accommodate the people who want to go out for a drink or go for a meal, we want to do that.”

Ms Davis has taken her concerns to Premier Peter Gutwein.