Owners pray for punters
Courtenay Place bars reopen tomorrow and the sector hopes Wellingtonians will embrace the precinct
One lonely burger.
This was the sole meal order Courtenay Place bar Danger Danger served up on Saturday night.
After enduring weeks without income during the Covid-imposed hiatus, the result was difficult to swallow for its owner, Hospitality New Zealand Wellington branch president Matt McLaughlin.
With bars set to reopen for the first time under alert level 2 tomorrow, McLaughlin was praying Wellingtonians embraced the precinct in their droves – or the fallout could be catastrophic.
‘‘Courtenay Place, which to me is New Zealand’s premier entertainment precinct, could be wiped off the face of the Earth in two months, which is really concerning,’’ said McLaughlin.
When asked whether any clubs and bars on the entertainment strip were fearful they wouldn’t survive Covid-19, McLaughlin was frank.
‘‘Pretty much all of us, without a word of a lie. We are all in a really, really dire situation. There’s no doubt about it.’’
The logistics of conforming to the physical distancing rules have already deterred some from opening their doors.
Nick Mills, who owns Blair St venues Betty’s Function House and Bar, Boston on Blair and Wellington Sports Cafe, said it was impractical for the nightspots to reopen under the alert level 2 restrictions.
‘‘The Sports Cafe relies on people watching sport and having a burger in the early evening, and having a dance and party later.
‘‘Both of those functions are as stuffed as each other.’’
Ministry of Health guidelines state that bar patrons must be seated, separated by a metre, and served by a single person.
That meant nightclubs were practically unable to open.
Betty’s Function House and Bar, a cocktail bar and nightclub, could hold about 150 people in total but could only seat up to 50 people, Mills said.
Boston on Blair was purely a nightclub. The venues are among several owned by the Mills family in Wellington.
‘‘We’ve got one of the busiest cafes in the country at Spruce Goose
and we’re struggling with that.
‘‘It’s not as easy as everybody thinks: ‘You’re open now, away you go.’ It’s really hard.’’
The Mills family’s venues, which also included Hummingbird, Los Banditos, Siglo and Corner Bar, had lost about $1 million collectively during the seven-week lockdown.
‘‘I’ve been in this industry since 1976. I’ve had highs and lows but never anything where the Government has turned the tap off and come and said, ‘You’ve got to stop trading’,’’ Mills added.
Revenue in the hospitality sector has been falling since January.
Data released by Statistics New Zealand last week showed spending in cafes, restaurants, bars and on takeaways in April had fallen 93 per cent compared to the same time last year — a drop of $721m.
While McLaughlin’s bar had a rough start on the opening weekend of level 2, he will modify Danger Danger’s operations to ensure it is compliant with the restrictions.
The dance floor will disappear, allowing Danger Danger to move from being a nightclub to a lounge bar.
With a maximum of 100 people allowed in each premises and queues outside needing separation, Courtenay Place is likely to be closed to traffic during late-night hours over the weekend.
The idea was put forward by McLaughlin to the council, initially to create a welcoming area when bars reopened but later purely as a safety measure.
‘‘A lot of people won’t be able to get into some bars, so we’re really conscious of ensuring our customers in queues feel safe.’’