In what may be a sign of things to come for the wider hospitality industry, the COVID-19 crisis has forced Wollongong cafe Opus Coffee Brewers to close.
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The much-loved CBD cafe, which has outlets on Keira and Kembla Streets, shut on Wednesday, with owners Mel Cox and Bryce Jepson saying they had no choice but to temporarily shut due to the combination of the new social distancing measures and the devastating economic environment.
"Most of us are aware this situation has been brewing for some time now but day after day we felt more at risk, more anxious and more uncertain about the future," the pair told the Mercury.
"Social distancing cannot be practiced effectively at either of our venues.
"We can only seat maximum 30 people at Keira Street but that's crammed. Leaving a metre and half would give us three customers in store at a time. Kembla Street is much smaller.
"So feeling like we have a responsibility to our staff and customers, we simply can't have them in store."
The decision has brought on "big, drastic, unexpected changes" for their financial and personal lives.
"Personally, we hope we all find the good in each other and stay strong together," they said.
"I think it's very much a wait and see what happens, but with a lack of government direction, leadership and support, how can anyone define when this will stop affecting us all?"
We feel like our decision to temporarily close will at least bring some slight mental and emotional comfort to our staff and ourselves.
"We feel like our decision to temporarily close will at least bring some slight mental and emotional comfort to our staff and ourselves."
The pair plan to donate their stock and perishables to other cafes which are still operating.
"At the very core we need to remember that hospitality is about putting others in our community first, hopefully we can still achieve this by donating our perishables & prepped stock to businesses that are still trading and require immediate help," they said.
"We can acknowledge that this is no time to be selfish, everyone is in this together and we will help each other the best way we know how."
They said the Wollongong hospitality industry was "full of love, kindness and giving" but, as it runs at a "low orfit margin," would likely need government help in the coming weeks.
"We can't expect our consumers to save this industry, they are here to enjoy it and keep it moving forward," they said.
"We need a government to save it! At the very least we'd love to see delivery services like Uber and Deliveroo drastically reducing delivery service charges to restaurants.
"The take away model is not sustainable for a long time, especially if you've built yourself for years to be a business focused on face to face transactions."
"We can't directly speak for anyone else but unfortunately we feel that a number of businesses will be making this decision locally. We already are seeing friends in other parts of the country doing the same thing."
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