By Romy Stephens and Jed Lanyon
Restaurant and cafe operators throughout the Yarra Ranges have raised concerns about the State Government’s plan to enforce a widespread outdoor dining culture over the summer.
The Government announced on 14 September that it would provide millions of dollars in funding to councils and businesses outside of Melbourne’s CBD to create a new model for outdoor entertainment.
As part of the $87.5 million Outdoor Eating and Entertainment Package, $5000 grants will be provided to help businesses buy equipment such as umbrellas, outdoor furniture and screens.
It will also help with the investment of training, advertising and other support measures businesses will need in order to take the state’s cafe culture outdoors.
Healesville’s Grand Hotel owner and manager Lisa McKay-Campbell said moving outdoors would be “hard work.”
“We’re lucky, because we’ve got the beer garden and balcony upstairs where we can open up the blinds and it’s classed as outdoors,” she said.
Ms McKay-Campbell said she was already in the process of applying for permits with council to put tables outside along the footpath.
She said that the space out the front of the restaurant was suitable and undercover, the side of the restaurant along Green Street features a sloped footpath, rendering it useless for tables and chairs.
“I feel sorry for the cafes in town that don’t have a back garden and only have the front of their street. It’s going to be much harder for them than what it is for me.
“The whole thing is crazy, this last six months, you wish you could wake up and pretend it never happened.”
Numerous restaurant and cafe operators said one of the biggest challenges with moving outdoors would be Melbourne’s unpredictable weather.
“The weather is very concerning considering we’re in a state that seems to have four different seasons in a single day,” Ms McKay-Campbell said.
“It’s going to be hard to prepare for a big weekend only for it to rain and then no one comes in over a lunch period. It could be a costly process for businesses.
“What do you do with all your stock if it rains? We’d be left with all this excess food.”
The manager of the Paradise Valley Hotel in Clematis, Nicole Tate, said staff would “roll with the punches” and make outdoor dining work but she was also concerned about the weather.
“We’re fortunate in the fact that we have a large beer garden and we have lots of outdoor furniture,” she said.
“But we’re applying for the grant because we need outdoor heaters. Once the sun goes down over here…the temperature in the beer garden jumps off a cliff it’s so cold.”
Ms Tate added that the grants wouldn’t help pay for additional things that might make outdoor dining more comfortable.
She said that the switch to outdoor dining would “without a doubt” have an impact on business.
“In the evening it’s cold, people don’t want to sit outside,” she said.
“We’d like things like blankets and cushions and outdoor lanterns to make people more comfortable.
“Lighting is definitely going to be a factor and there’s not room in the budget for things like that.”
Grants on Sherbrooke owner Cheryl Campbell said her business faced similar challenges.
“We can transition to outdoor dining, we have an outdoor deck and we also have the space out the front,” she said.
“We can only really have outdoor dining if it’s not raining and if the weather’s warm enough, and the Dandenong Ranges is not always predictable.
“So we would maybe need extra funding to put up some awnings to protect anyone who was sitting on the deck.
“As long as we can set it up properly then I might not have a lot of objection, except that it would really impact on the number of people we could actually serve.”
But Ms Campbell said no matter what, the safety of staff and customers came first.
“At the end of the day, I’m not going to complain because I put the health of my staff and customers number one,” she said.
“I’m happy that we’ve had the complete closure because if you look at our numbers they are way down to nearly zero.
“I believe hospitality, in the end, will bounce back.”
Yarra Ranges Council did not respond for comment in time for the print deadline.
