Hundreds of thousands of hospitality workers were stood down when pubs and bars closed as part of the coronavirus shutdown. But venues are finding creative ways to survive COVID-19 and keep staff working.
W Short Hotels has converted its pubs across NSW into convenience stores to weather the crisis. Owner Marty Short, is selling local produce and essential supplies to locals who are battling panic buying shortages.
Short’s pubs – The Tudor Hotel in Redfern (above), The Royal Leichhardt, Seabreeze Beach Hotel at South West Rocks and the Toormina Hotel in Coffs Harbour – have been transformed into stores, with hand sanitiser stations and social distancing markers on the floor.
Short told nine.com.au: “I thought, I can’t sell counter meals, can’t sell a draught beer, can’t pour somebody a vino, what am I going to do?
“I’m here to serve our community and we need them to help us stay here.”
Momento Hospitality has turned the warehouse behind the Bella Vista Hotel in Sydney’s north-west into a contactless, drive-through shop - called Essentials Express at Bella (pictured main) - stocking alcohol (including a range of signature cocktails), fresh produce, prepared meals and groceries.
The initiative has kept more than a dozen staff employed, plus helped move through stock for suppliers.
The Toxteth Hotel in the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe is selling kegs of beer and espresso martinis to nearby residents to "help through the home isolation".
In addition to alcohol delivery and takeaway, The Golden Gully Bar is offering online mixology and cooking classes.
Through its ‘Virtual Gully’ website, you can pay for a one-hour mixology or cooking class where you can learn how to make a cocktail or meal at home.
BrewDog's Brisbane pub, TapDog, is preparing to launch a virtual bar, with news, quizzes, music and community. Registration is going live soon following a successful launch at BrewDog's UK venues, which attracted 1000 punters.
Additionally, DogTap is also now on UberEATS for food delivery and has introduced a drive-thru service.
The Archie Rose production team has reallocated its spirits production capacity to hand sanitiser in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The distillery’s production efforts are intended to bolster supplies nationwide, as well as maintain the employment of as many of the company’s 20 plus hospitality team as possible following the forced shutdown of all bars.
Four Pillars has started selling a production run of 20,000 litres of two hand sanitiser products: one called Take Care, sold in bulk to health professionals, the other called Heads, Tails & Clean Hands, an aromatic, gin-scented product aimed at consumers.
"By doing this, by diverting a fair bit of our production away from gin to hand sanitiser, we’ve been able to keep nearly 30 people employed, on the bottling line, packing boxes," head distiller Cameron McKenzie told the Australian Financial Review.
Bars offer cocktail delivery
An array of bars throughout Australia are offering home delivery of cocktails as a strategy to survive COVID-19 and keep their customers sated.
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