‘Thanks Peter’: Bar Wa Izakaya temporarily shuts due to Covid surge

A Hobart restaurant owner has closed temporarily, covering his windows with a large message to the Premier ... who just so happened to be walking past.

A Hobart restaurant said they’ve been forced to temporarily close due to premier Peter Gutwein’s “disastrous” handling of the border reopening.

Bar Wa Izakaya co-owner Julian Hensens said it would be a “massive” financial blow to the business, but that he simply could not risk an outbreak in his restaurant.

Mr Hensens closed his doors on Sunday and put some signs in the window stating “Peter: remind me of the upside again. Asking for a friend.”

The premier, who just so happened to be walking past the shop a few minutes after the sign was erected, was taken aback when he spotted it in the window.

Mr Gutwein said he was surprised that Mr Hensens would go so far, but that he was entitled to his own opinion.

“It surprises me that a business would do that,” Mr Gutwein said.

“Businesses or individuals are free to do and say what they like, but at the end of the day we’re in a much better position to reopen today than we were at the beginning of this.”

However Mr Hensens said Mr Gutwein’s reopening plans had put all of his staff in harm’s way, and that the decision would “slowly suffocate” his business.

THANKS PETER: Bar wa Izakaya co-owner Julian Hensens is temporarily closing up shop due to the surge in Covid cases.Picture: Kenji Sato

He said the surge of Covid cases following the border reopening and the chronic shortage of rapid antigen tests made it nigh-impossible for him to run his restaurant.

“He said we were ready to open to the borders, but clearly we were far from it,” Mr Hensens said.

“We’re only getting about 1500 tested a day at the moment, people are being sent away from testing sites, we can’t get hold of any RAT tests ourselves.”

Several of his staff members have come into contact with positive Covid cases, but are unable to get themselves tested so they can safely resume work.

Two of his staff are in self-isolation, and several others are apprehensive about returning to work without getting tested.

Mr Hensens said he ultimately decided he would close up shop for at least one week to minimise the chance of contamination.

“You don’t want an outbreak associated with your business. It would damage your business for a long time,” Mr Hensens said.

“There’s also the mental exhaustion of it all, making a quick decision every day on whether you should tell that staff member to come to work or not.”

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