Back to the start on McKenzie Street

WHEN Victorian cafes began trading by takeaway only in March, Hydrant Food Hall’s Elise Rowe instantly knew that was going to be a tough market for her business.

“Within two days, we closed. Those two days were just so quiet, and if we were to continue it wouldn’t have been viable,” she said.

“We never thought, that’s it. But we knew If we had any chance of surviving this pandemic, and getting through to the other side, we needed to close.”

Initially prepared to keep their doors shut at the McKenzie Street café for six months, Mrs Rowe hopes to reopen by the end of June.

In the meantime, the wellbeing of her workforce has been a priority.

“We spent some time with our staff, who I don’t think understood the reality of what was happening at the time, and the fact that we were closing. It changed their whole world,” she said.

“A lot of them are younger, we’ve got students and full-time workers who now didn’t have a job. It’s also their purpose for getting out of bed.

“We wanted to retain as many staff as we could, so we’ve been keeping in touch, checking in on mental health, and making sure that they’re okay and supported. That’s been our mission while we have been closed.”

Making a few alterations in the cafe while they can, the Hydrant team is aware, and realistic about the fact that their business, like many, is virtually going back to the start again.

“We’ve been spending this time, trying to navigate our way through what we have to change to make it viable in whatever the new norm is. There’s a lot of recovery,” Mrs Rowe said.

“We’ll bring in some more takeaway options to what we previously had, make them more well known, and visible, and make some changes within the venue to try and make sure there’s less contact points.

“Unknowingly, we’ve made these changes that were always on our to-do list, that are actually going to work really well with the new hospitality guidelines we’ve been given.”

Mrs Rowe and her husband, Sam are “people-people,” looking forward having customers and workers return.

“We miss the social aspect. The family we’ve got in our staff, we’ve missed, and we’re excited to bring them back.

“Oh, and the wood fire,” she laughed. “We’re really looking forward to cranking that up again.”