Regional NSW Restaurants Struggle, Survive

0:00Over 60 high-profile restaurants, bars, and cafes in regional New South Wales have shut down in the past 18 months. Spots like Thermador Oyster Bar, in Newcastle, Babyface Kitchen in Wollongong, in Yellibillion Pocobin, couldn't weather the winter slumps and skyrocketing costs. Owners like Josh and Jess Gregory crunched the numbers and saw they needed over $100,000 just to survive the offseason. Post COVID, these areas boomed with internal migration, government vouchers worth nearly $1 billion, and folks craving dining out after. Lockdowns, but that had faded fast within 18 months. Trade tanked midweek, with empty dining rooms on Wednesdays, and insolvencies and food and accommodation jumped 57% last year. Owners are calling a brutal, especially with a young family or decade-long runs on the line. Josh Gregory chose to close Thermador before risking his home, unlike others locked out by landlords.

1:01Andrew Burns shuttered his hadded Babyface Kitchen after 10 years, saying city spots like Sydney stay packed year-round, while regional trade hits a hard ceiling, rising freight, labor, utilities, and insurance hammered independent's hardest, alongside customers pinching pennies on extras like champagne. Newer regional ventures faced transient crowds, weather wipeouts, and low volume that kills thin margins. Chefs like Manuel Tarasigni bailed back to Sydney after trying Malambimbi. Summer pivoting smart, Burns shifted to his burger joint to smoking barrels, while bottle shop yaka went pop-up events over fixed stores. It's a perfect storm squeezing the sector, but survivors adapt by going casual or urban, proving resilience in a cutthroat game. That's your update from Sydney News Today, powered by AI. I'm Corey with The Story.