By Alesha Capone
The owner of a Werribee cafe has welcomed state government plans to boost outdoor dining this summer.
The government recently announced $87.5 million in funding to help councils and businesses outside of Melbourne’s CBD make outdoor dining safe and practical.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the funding would assist the hospitality industry in adapting to “COVID normal” by boosting outdoor dining, much like New York and London have done.
The state government’s Outdoor Eating and Entertainment Package includes $58 million for grants of up to $5000 to help hospitality businesses pay for items such as umbrellas, outdoor furniture and screens.
The grants will be available to businesses such as cafés, restaurants and pubs with a payroll of less than $3 million.
Funding of $29.5 million will be provided to councils to help them implement enforcement and monitoring processes to support expanded outdoor dining in areas such as footpaths, and to reduce or waive business permit fees.
Notorious Espresso owner Hadi Chami said being allowed to have 20 to 30 customers dining outdoors in summer would be a big boon for the cafe, especially if permit costs were waived and grants were provided for equipment such as umbrellas.
It’s about everyone getting back together to get the wheels back in motion,” he said.
“It’s a pretty good idea to at least get that conversation going and get the ball rolling.”
He said that a lack of workers coming into Werribee’s city centre had led to Notorious Espresso’s business falling by about 60 per cent during the pandemic.
He said that even with takeaway being permitted, delivery services such as UberEats took a share of the price, causing profits to drop.
Mr Chami said the five kilometre radius, applied to most travel from home during lockdown, was also affecting trade.
“If that’s dropped and also the outdoor dining introduced, that will help us a lot,” he said.
“Once everything looks like it’s getting better, people will start to be okay with coming out.“
Mr Chami said that at various points during the pandemic, Notorious Espresso has provided free coffees to essential workers and the general public, “to help keep everyone’s spirits up”.
