Why some restaurants want to reopen - but some are less enthusiastic

Little Lagos owner Adetokunboh Adeniyi is keen to see his customers return (SBS)

Source: SBS

Sydney restaurants are preparing for a rush of diners as lockdown restriction ease, and many are already taking dine-in bookings. However, as Small Business Secrets discovered, not all owners are racing to reopen.


Highlights
  • Over 20,000 restaurant owners are not into rush to re-open business this month of October 2021
  • 74% of Australian diners are willing and actively support a venue, a pub, a cafe requesting a proof of vaccination certificate in order to enable them to dine out
  • 83 % Australian diners said that they actively care more about a venue or a restaurant COVID safety
Tasneem Abbas runs a small Pakistani restaurant in Sydney’s north. The 40-year-old is among many of the city’s 20,000 restaurant owners in no rush to reopen the dining room, which has sat empty for three months.  

“In my small restaurant, if 10 to 12 people are just dining in that, how do we afford all the overheads?  Financially we know that it is going to be really hard, but until the four square meter restrictions are lifted, It is going to be just as the same, like takeaway. "


 

 

Despite carrying lockdown losses of more than $100,000 Nigerian restaurant owner of Little Lagos, Adetokunboh Adeniyi is among those preparing to reopen in this October.  

"Seeing that kind of support from our friends, from our customers, it just really made us feel overwhelmed.We want to reopen, we want to start working. We're going to work as hard as we can just to make sure that we're back on track."

 

 


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