EMPLOYEES’ FREE FEED AS EATERY STAYS OPEN
A HEARTBREAKING decision to stand down 20 staff has prompted a Gold Coast restaurant to keep its kitchen open for takeaway despite being a costly service.
Surfers Paradise Italian restaurant Costa D’Oro is now offering takeaway to customers and free feeds to its former employees after harsh restrictions came into place on Monday to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Costa D’oro co-owner Nuccia Fusco said it was the first time the restaurant had closed its main dining area since opening in 1987.
“Thirty-three years we’ve been operating without ever having to close one day. Now it’s a ghost town,” she said.
“We had to let 20 staff go. Most of the staff we had to let go won’t find work. If we keep the kitchen open, at least we can feed them, they can come past every day and pick up a meal.
“The other reason is to try to stay alive as long as possible, keep as many people aware that we’re here, we want to give back to everybody who’s been giving to us for 33 years. We’re still here for them if anyone needs anything.”
Costa D’Oro is now running a takeaway menu with $15 lunches and $20 dinners. Customers can also order takeaway coffee, or add a beer, wine or cider to their food order.
The meals are ordered over the phone and can be taken out to your car as a pick up “drive through” service .
“They’re all main course, large serves. Kids (meals) are $6 across the board,” Ms Fusco said. “They all freeze really well as well, so you could buy six or 10 meals all at once, stock up the freezer.”
Ms Fusco said the state of the world at the moment feels more like a nightmare than reality, and she feels the worst is yet to come.
“We didn’t see it coming. I still wake up and think ‘did I just dream all of that? Is it real?” she said. “The scariest part is not so much what we’re going through right now, it’s what’s going to happen in two months’ time or three months’ time. You can’t even imagine.”