CAFE’S NEW RECIPE TO SURVIVE
ANTONELLA Conte is unsure if her Geelong cafe will survive the coronavirus shutdowns, but she knows better than most how necessary the rules are.
While Ms Conte is doing everything she can to keep Cravings Cafe and Catering afloat, her mind also keeps drifting to Italy, the country hardest hit by the virus with almost 5500 deaths.
Her sister Enza is an aged care worker in Sicily, risking her own health to look after those most susceptible to the fatal virus.
“I talk to her every second night by FaceTime. It’s scary. The whole country is in lockdown, but her work is important so she has to keep going in,” Ms Conte said.
“She’s got young kids, and she’s not even paid at the moment, but she keeps going in there because the people she is caring for are the most vulnerable.”
Ms Conte spent four years building Cravings — on Malop St, opposite the old Carlton Hotel building — into a thriving, friendly eatery.
But her catering orders have all been cancelled, and yesterday the chairs and tables were packed away. Still, she’s trying to make do, selling sandwiches, coffee, packaged pasta and take-home trays of lasagne, and taking prepaid orders through the Skip app.
“I’ve already had to lay off two girls who’d just started here,” she said. “We’re just not making enough money to pay the wages, but I’m trying to keep some work going for the girls.
“It breaks my heart when people come in here and we can’t offer them a table and chair to eat at.
“But I know it’s all being done for the right reasons. We could end up like Italy in Australia if people don’t listen to what the government has to say, and start doing what they’re telling us.”