VIRUS FORCES CHANGES
CAFES AND RESTAURANTS ADAPT TO ADDRESS ‘NEW RULES’.
FACED with an economic crisis unlike anything Toowoomba has ever seen, restaurant owner Dave Wood (pictured) had two choices — quickly innovate or slowly perish.
The owner of Charred Toowoomba is one of dozens of eatery owners adapting on the fly to the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced people to stay away from crowded areas.
TOOWOOMBA’S top restaurants and cafes have moved quickly to introduce takeaway and delivery services, following new government laws in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Charred, Encores Restaurant and Gip’s Restaurant are just some of the city’s eateries who have rushed to adapt to restrictions on seating space.
The Federal Government’s new measures last week outlawed gatherings of more than 100 people indoors, and venues must ensure there are 4m of floor space for every customer.
This turned Charred Restaurant owner Dave Wood’s 100-seat restaurant on Margaret St into a 21-seat venue, putting serious pressure on his financial situation.
Mr Wood has now introduced a prepared meal service, where Charred meals are frozen and provided to people living in isolation.
“We’re going to keep the quality of our food and source as much as we can locally and in the Darling Downs,” he said.
“It’s a prepared meal that is frozen, you can stack them up and put them in the freezer.
“If we are to have any chance of surviving a shutdown, there’s no other way – we’ve got to move fast and still meet customer and consumer requirements.”
The Finch cafe owner Edwina Farquhar said her side project iCooked, an awardwinning business she and her husband Dan bought more than a year ago, had received a big jump in orders from people living in quarantine.
The business prepares full meals in an industrial kitchen and freezes them for consumption later.
Mrs Farquhar said with sales at the cafe dropping heavily last week, the increased popularity in iCooked was a welcome boost.
“We are seeing quite an increase in demand for those meals, so we’re going to try and redeploy jobs from the Finch to iCooked,” she said.
“We’ve been doing a week’s worth of normal trade in a day.”
Gip’s Restaurant has adapted to the new laws by introducing a “drive-through” service.
Posting late last week on social media, Gip’s said customers would now be able to order by phone and wait in the driveway for their meals.
Popular restaurant Encores at the Empire Threate brought in its new home takeaway menu on Thursday, dubbing it “Encores at Home”.
The new laws dropped the restaurant’s capacity to 66 people.
Emeraude at Hampton, known for its ever-changing menu and local produce, has taken a novel approach to the new restrictions by offering takeaway fish and chips.
Owner Amanda Hinds said the venue was swamped with orders at the weekend.
Top-rated CBD restaurant Zev’s Bistro has also dropped its prices and limited the number of bookings available in a bid to keep business going, offering a “prix-fixe” menu of yakitori, pastrami and trout.
The business appealed the community consider dining at the award-winning eatery.
tom.gillespie@thechronicle.com.au