By Mikayla van Loon and Renee Wood
For 262 days, metropolitan Melbourne faced the toughest and longest lockdown in the world, making the taste of freedom sweeter than ever.
Cafes, restaurants and bars, as well as hairdressers, were the first to emerge from the stay-at-home orders, as the restrictions placed on people lifted on Friday 22 October.
Yarra Ranges residents didn’t waste any time getting back to normality, making bookings for breakfast, lunch and dinner wherever they could get in.
But while the excitement for patrons was obvious, cafe owners said the stress of density limits, policing vaccinations and staffing, had made the return to dining-in quite stressful.
Bean Seen Cafe part owner Jason Seach said he was very happy to be open again and the response from the community was overwhelming.
“As soon as the lockdown ending was announced we started getting bookings and I’m actually booked out for the next four days so that’s a positive sign,” he said.
“I’m happy with it from a business point of view but it’s just the whole double vaccination thing. How we have to police that, it’s a little bit of an issue.”
Mr Seach said his staff had been quite apprehensive about having to turn people away had they not been fully vaccinated.
“That’s probably the hardest thing. In hindsight, I’ve just finished most of the service today (22 October) and I’d say 99 per cent of people were pretty good, which takes the pressure off a little bit.
“You just see what’s happening in Sydney and stuff like that, cafe people getting abused and all this sort of stuff but it’s been alright today.”
Although still not at full capacity with current density limits, Mr Seach has a positive attitude about opening up.
“It’s something. It’s a start, it’s in the right direction. I mean, we’ve got restrictions on us with the capacity that we can have, I’m still not at capacity but it’s enough to start with and it’s better than takeaway.”
Many hospitality businesses also made the decision to remain takeaway only due to a lack of staff being fully vaccinated.
The confusion for the industry came after Premier Daniel Andrews announced last week at a press conference hospitality workers had to be fully vaccinated to serve fully vaccinated customers.
Seville’s Branded Burgers and Bar opened on Friday and noticed a spike in walk in’s due to being one of few businesses in the area open for dining in.
“We had bookings and a lot of people walking in when they saw that we were open because there was a lot of places in the valley that weren’t open,” Gina Braidner, co-owner of the business said.
However Ms Braidner said they may need to close or reduce their opening hours this upcoming weekend due to a staff shortage.
“Everyone was so excited to get out, it was a huge weekend, but moving forward in all honesty, I don’t know if I can open next week because I don’t have the staff to do it,” Ms Braidner said.
The restaurant is down two key workers, one due to having one vaccination and the other is unwell.
“What we’re actually debating is do we just do breakfast and lunch for dining in and then close for dinner, which would be the most stupid business decision ever in in the world because dinners are a busy time – so this is what I’m up against.
“If we were to close to minimize hours when would I do that? There’s no real good time.”
