After a couple of months of having an empty dining space, The Autumn Rooms in Newcastle was ecstatic to welcome customers through its doors again on Monday.
In line with the NSW Government’s roadmap to exiting lockdown, the venue reopened on 11 October for fully-vaccinated residents.
“It’s been really nice to have people back,” owner Ben Richardson said.
“It makes you realise how much you miss the interaction with customers, it’s been so good.”
He adds the return to “normal” operating was a long time coming.
“As far as community support goes it has been amazing during lockdown,” the hospitality worker of 20 years said.
“Our staff have been awesome, it probably went on for about a month too long, we started to get itchy feet by the end of it.
“It is just really nice to be back open and have people in the cafe which is what we do best.”
When it comes to the double vaccination requirement, Ben says they’ve had no trouble yet.
“I guess the only thing is people getting used to it,” he said.
“And where it is saved and how to get it up is a little bit time consuming but other than that everybody has been totally accepting and really supportive of it.
“I think they just want to be back out, it’s been a good experience so far.”
During the lockdown the cafe remained open for takeaway and offered picnic boxes for people to enjoy from their homes.
Ben says it was challenging but “really appreciated the government support”.
“To try and be able to open back up with 25 staff means that I had to carry a lot of the cost,” he said.
“So I tried to keep everyone getting shifts and keeping our staff engaged with the business so that when we did open back up I had a team of people ready to go.
“Because the hardest thing and what they’ve seen in Sydney, and even here it is happening, there is a real shortage of hospitality workers.
“I guess our goal was to make sure we kept our staff but that’s expensive, so more support would have been awesome but we’re still here and we’re excited to be open.”
For four years now The Autumn Rooms has been operating from its Darby Street address and Ben says the pandemic has been one of the strangest periods they’ve gone through.
“I have been in hospitality for 20 years and it’s definitely been one of the most challenging periods for sure,” he explained.
“I just encourage everyone to get out and support local businesses and respect the government legislation.
“Let’s just get back into it.”
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