With NSW Government allowing allow pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants to have up to 50 customers as of next Monday, June 1, life will look a little different at local cafes and restaurants, including Dragonfly, The Bank and The Loft.

Owner of Molesworth Street’s The Bank café and Nesbitt Lane’s The Loft restaurant Brad Rickard said it’s “back to business” for both venues which are already doing sit down and dine in options for customers.’

Brad Rickard at The Bank cafe.

“It’s easy to stop and harder to wind back up,” Brad said. “Dining in started yesterday at the loft, but we can only have ten people at the moment and our capacity is 30.”

From Monday, the new rules for pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants mean venues can have up to 50 customers, subject to a one person per four square metre rule, and with strict social distancing guidelines.

“At The Bank, we can get 45, including outdoors,” he said. “But we are in winter and people will have less willingness to sit out in the cold.”

Brad said his staff will have to keep a guest book, recording which customers come in and sit down to have a coffee and some food.

“Dine in is for diners,” he said. “We hope that if people are booking to dine in, they buy food and drinks. It makes it a better financial return for us with less customers.

“But we are not too proscriptive about it and we are still doing take away.

“We only have ten chairs this week – but the community is ready and understanding.

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Dragonfly Café

In the two months since Angus O’Neill took over Dragonfly Café, he said it’s “been exciting but challenging”.

The Carrington Street café has already been inviting customers to book ahead and dine in – but Angus is gearing up for next week’s June 1 change to café rules.

“We’ve been advised we can have 20 people per 80 square metres and we are hoping to have ten outside and ten inside at a minimum from June 1,” he said.

New flavours

One of the big changes Angus is keen to bring about is a new menu from his acclaimed chef Rani Hewson – who has worked at big name eateries Rae’s at Wategos and Harvest.

“Rani was chucked in the deep end too when I took over the business,” Angus said. “He’s keen to put new flavours on the plate and open up the café to more than the take away menu.

Some of the new dishes include salt and pepper squid with citrus miso sauce and black spice seasoning; and crispy quail with a roast capsicum sauce and a charred corn salsa.

“The flavours are through the roof,” Angus said.

While Dragonfly has already been open for dinner seven days a week since Covid restrictions began, the changes will see people invited to book in for a 5.30pm, or a 7.30pm dinner sitting on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

“It’s ideal if people can make a booking, but last minute bookings are ok if all the seats are not filled. You can come in later than 5.30pm, but you will have a shorter sitting time,” Angus said.

Dragonfly Cafe ready to seat more customers, inside and outside.

Extra staff

With extra regulations to adhere to under Covid dining in guidelines, Angus has employed a few more staff to help with cleaning and setting up.

“We make sure tables and chairs are clean and sanitised before the next person sits and we encourage people to be calm and patient as we do so,” he said. “The majority of people understand a difficult situation.

“We also need to have customers seated and do table service and we are training our staff in good table service guidelines. It’s a big change for us.”

Like at The Bank and The Loft, dining in is for diners, but Angus said they don’t want to turn away regular customers to a café that’s been running for 14 years.

“If someone wants to sit, we say have people coming in for bookings and they may only get a short sitting,” he said. “Some people order cakes and little things on top of coffee and it makes it better for the café. 

“We want to make sure our customers are happy.”

After 14 years of baking for Dragonfly café, Brian Findlayson is still baking for Dragonfly three days a week. 

“He comes in and sees some of the new things we are introducing and likes it,” Angus said. 

“We are doing great things and moving forward with new energy.”