COVID's gone, costs are not: How Newcastle's hospitality scene is hanging on

The Advertiser

13 hours ago

At Bank Corner on a weekday morning, as the weather cools into winter and a handful of the nine-to-five crowd wait for their order, it's hard to recall that not that long ago we were scared this would all be gone forever.
It has been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Hunter. There was the time before, and the time after. As we get further from it being our present, it becomes clearer that comparing the before and after is futile.
Under the long shadow of the virus, living costs choked the weekly budget in a long and painful hangover of swollen inflation, supply shortages, wage stagnation and unaffordable rent.
In that climate, venue owners say customers are less concerned about superficial luxuries and retail guff. They care about value for money and the sense of reliability in a world swimming upstream against a cascade of modern anxieties.
Alyssa Salamon, the owner of the Newcastle West cafe on Bellevue Street, knows the names of her regulars and their orders by heart. She says Bank Corner customers crave that connection and authenticity.
There is no time before the pandemic for her business to compare with now. She has worked in hospitality for years, but only became the owner of the West End landmark in January last year.
She wants to keep out the sterile modernities that came from the pandemic years: to take the orders herself, make eye contact with her customers, and chat about their day.
There are no screens in the cafe, and little branding. There's no front-facing tablet screen asking for reviews. If the service and the coffee are good, you can mention it to the staff yourself. Chances are, they remember you from last time.
"I think there is something to be said for a cosy little corner where you don't have screens," Salamon says.
"You're not ordering off a QR code menu.
"I've been through my fair share of grieving, and sometimes going to an establishment where you're seen and recognised, and you're held in that bit of gentle space, is important."
Salamon has made gradual progress for the past few months on extending the cafe's hours and securing its liquor license, but she is taking it steadily. She's conscious of not changing too much too quickly, and talks often about respecting the history of the place.
One of her first improvements was to cut a section of bench that had previously jutted out. A patron had dropped by and offered to help, and Salamon was sawing the timber freehand when she went about 10 millimetres off track.
There's a small knot in the side of the bench now, almost invisible if you did not know it was there. For Salamon, it's a stamp of her identity on a place that already has so much of its own.
"It was a beautiful way of christening the space in that it was such a community effort," she says.
The weekday crowd has never really come back to The Kent. Everyone is watching their spending these days, and the cross-town pub that used to cater to the office and retail workers around the suburb is now competing with the fast-and-cheap alternatives.
Still, the 101-year-old Beaumont Street establishment has held on.
"I think people are saving their money for the one night a week to go out," group director Chris Fitzsimmons says.
"You get those nights where it seems like everyone just picked Saturday this week - no one Friday and then, on Saturday, there's a line around the corner."
The venue has been enticing customers back with new lunch specials and pub staples like schnitzels and wings. It has had mixed results, Fitzsimmons says.
"The patterns used to be a lot easier to pick," he says.
"You used to have a better idea of what was going to happen day to day. These days, it's more crystal ball."
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp, who has been involved in a string of revitalisation efforts in the city pre- and post-COVID, says venue owners and managers have been operating in a rapidly changing environment for a long time.
The culture has been turning increasingly to moderation. Rates of drinking, particularly among people under 30, have been steadily declining. Of those who partake, the number of weekly drinkers increasing their intake rose around 2013 and has remained fairly consistent since, according to government data.
"People are going out, but they are finessing where they go," Crakanthorp says, noting a growing preference for small and medium-sized venues.
"The cost of living is driving people out of the city and into the outer suburbs.
"There are a lot of green shoots in the night-time economy. For the bigger ones, it is tough at the moment, but we see positives as well."
Josh Distefano, the owner of Vera Wine on Beaumont Street, believes there's a benefit in having a small and casual space. You can be in and out in 15 minutes, he says, and there have been plenty of customers who have taken him up on the offer.
The three-year-old bottle shop secured a license to serve their wares in-store in November, and has since added a handful of small tables at the front of the shop.
Customers are time-poor. They have commitments and obligations, and those have costs. And costs have gone up.
Distefano is sceptical about the oft-repeated line that customers are looking for boutique experiences, too. When he opened the shop, he wanted to offer something for everyone with an experience that could not be found at the commercial chains.
"People will remember how they felt, more than what they ate," he says.
"Having that connection with your guests is important."
When Distefano received the email from the Newcastle Herald with the news that Audrey Nash, the city's fearless children's advocate, had died last month, he immediately sent a message to her family. Mrs Nash had visited the store a few times over the previous year, and he had got to know her.
"Her family came in that night and had drinks and we were a bit quiet," Distefano says.
"I sat down with them and reminisced. These people become part of your family."
On a Wednesday night, about 9pm, Chris Wilson opens the door to The Koutetsu bar on Hunter Street and immediately puts out his hand.
He has been at work since before 9am, and he won't leave until after closing time, but he greets every customer warmly and asks about their day. This new climate has him feeling like he is building his business all over again, and working the same and longer hours.
He opens the bar four nights a week. He would like to open for seven, but the demand is not there yet.
Uber has been a game changer, helping patrons get around the city on demand. He likes the light rail, but also believes that getting it was a travesty of public planning that almost crippled the city and businesses like his.
"It was so hard to get a taxi in Newcastle, back in the day," he says.
"I know the tram is very polarising and, mind you, I was lucky that it didn't go in front of my business. The people who got through that debacle - hats off to them because that would have been so stressful, but I use it when I can."
Ultimately, he says, the trick to a vibrant social and cultural economy does not come solely from having busy bars and restaurants open all hours. Rather, the city's entire infrastructure must work to serve the population, and one of the happy effects is a thriving hospitality scene.
The veteran barman is a stickler for service. He and his bartenders would rather open for 20 customers and serve each of them with consistently impeccable wares than fill the place to capacity and see customers walking out frustrated over a long wait for a drink.
He could change his hours, or his menu, or his style on a whim, chasing the new flavour of the week. But he says doing so would cost him the patronage he has spent years struggling to build.
"The more you chop and change, the more confused your guests get," he says.
"They would rather go somewhere where they know they are going to get a drink."
There's no magic trick, no social media algorithm or strategy that will fill the place until it's standing room only. Customers, in that sense, want what they have always wanted.
"We're here to serve," Wilson says.
"People work hard for their money, and when they are paying for a cocktail, they deserve to get quality and to get it quickly."
At Bank Corner on a weekday morning, as the weather cools into winter and a handful of the nine-to-five crowd wait for their order, it's hard to recall that not that long ago we were scared this would all be gone forever.
It has been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Hunter. There was the time before, and the time after. As we get further from it being our present, it becomes clearer that comparing the before and after is futile.
Under the long shadow of the virus, living costs choked the weekly budget in a long and painful hangover of swollen inflation, supply shortages, wage stagnation and unaffordable rent.
In that climate, venue owners say customers are less concerned about superficial luxuries and retail guff. They care about value for money and the sense of reliability in a world swimming upstream against a cascade of modern anxieties.
Alyssa Salamon, the owner of the Newcastle West cafe on Bellevue Street, knows the names of her regulars and their orders by heart. She says Bank Corner customers crave that connection and authenticity.
There is no time before the pandemic for her business to compare with now. She has worked in hospitality for years, but only became the owner of the West End landmark in January last year.
She wants to keep out the sterile modernities that came from the pandemic years: to take the orders herself, make eye contact with her customers, and chat about their day.
There are no screens in the cafe, and little branding. There's no front-facing tablet screen asking for reviews. If the service and the coffee are good, you can mention it to the staff yourself. Chances are, they remember you from last time.
"I think there is something to be said for a cosy little corner where you don't have screens," Salamon says.
"You're not ordering off a QR code menu.
"I've been through my fair share of grieving, and sometimes going to an establishment where you're seen and recognised, and you're held in that bit of gentle space, is important."
Salamon has made gradual progress for the past few months on extending the cafe's hours and securing its liquor license, but she is taking it steadily. She's conscious of not changing too much too quickly, and talks often about respecting the history of the place.
One of her first improvements was to cut a section of bench that had previously jutted out. A patron had dropped by and offered to help, and Salamon was sawing the timber freehand when she went about 10 millimetres off track.
There's a small knot in the side of the bench now, almost invisible if you did not know it was there. For Salamon, it's a stamp of her identity on a place that already has so much of its own.
"It was a beautiful way of christening the space in that it was such a community effort," she says.
The weekday crowd has never really come back to The Kent. Everyone is watching their spending these days, and the cross-town pub that used to cater to the office and retail workers around the suburb is now competing with the fast-and-cheap alternatives.
Still, the 101-year-old Beaumont Street establishment has held on.
"I think people are saving their money for the one night a week to go out," group director Chris Fitzsimmons says.
"You get those nights where it seems like everyone just picked Saturday this week - no one Friday and then, on Saturday, there's a line around the corner."
The venue has been enticing customers back with new lunch specials and pub staples like schnitzels and wings. It has had mixed results, Fitzsimmons says.
"The patterns used to be a lot easier to pick," he says.
"You used to have a better idea of what was going to happen day to day. These days, it's more crystal ball."
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp, who has been involved in a string of revitalisation efforts in the city pre- and post-COVID, says venue owners and managers have been operating in a rapidly changing environment for a long time.
The culture has been turning increasingly to moderation. Rates of drinking, particularly among people under 30, have been steadily declining. Of those who partake, the number of weekly drinkers increasing their intake rose around 2013 and has remained fairly consistent since, according to government data.
"People are going out, but they are finessing where they go," Crakanthorp says, noting a growing preference for small and medium-sized venues.
"The cost of living is driving people out of the city and into the outer suburbs.
"There are a lot of green shoots in the night-time economy. For the bigger ones, it is tough at the moment, but we see positives as well."
Josh Distefano, the owner of Vera Wine on Beaumont Street, believes there's a benefit in having a small and casual space. You can be in and out in 15 minutes, he says, and there have been plenty of customers who have taken him up on the offer.
The three-year-old bottle shop secured a license to serve their wares in-store in November, and has since added a handful of small tables at the front of the shop.
Customers are time-poor. They have commitments and obligations, and those have costs. And costs have gone up.
Distefano is sceptical about the oft-repeated line that customers are looking for boutique experiences, too. When he opened the shop, he wanted to offer something for everyone with an experience that could not be found at the commercial chains.
"People will remember how they felt, more than what they ate," he says.
"Having that connection with your guests is important."
When Distefano received the email from the Newcastle Herald with the news that Audrey Nash, the city's fearless children's advocate, had died last month, he immediately sent a message to her family. Mrs Nash had visited the store a few times over the previous year, and he had got to know her.
"Her family came in that night and had drinks and we were a bit quiet," Distefano says.
"I sat down with them and reminisced. These people become part of your family."
On a Wednesday night, about 9pm, Chris Wilson opens the door to The Koutetsu bar on Hunter Street and immediately puts out his hand.
He has been at work since before 9am, and he won't leave until after closing time, but he greets every customer warmly and asks about their day. This new climate has him feeling like he is building his business all over again, and working the same and longer hours.
He opens the bar four nights a week. He would like to open for seven, but the demand is not there yet.
Uber has been a game changer, helping patrons get around the city on demand. He likes the light rail, but also believes that getting it was a travesty of public planning that almost crippled the city and businesses like his.
"It was so hard to get a taxi in Newcastle, back in the day," he says.
"I know the tram is very polarising and, mind you, I was lucky that it didn't go in front of my business. The people who got through that debacle - hats off to them because that would have been so stressful, but I use it when I can."
Ultimately, he says, the trick to a vibrant social and cultural economy does not come solely from having busy bars and restaurants open all hours. Rather, the city's entire infrastructure must work to serve the population, and one of the happy effects is a thriving hospitality scene.
The veteran barman is a stickler for service. He and his bartenders would rather open for 20 customers and serve each of them with consistently impeccable wares than fill the place to capacity and see customers walking out frustrated over a long wait for a drink.
He could change his hours, or his menu, or his style on a whim, chasing the new flavour of the week. But he says doing so would cost him the patronage he has spent years struggling to build.
"The more you chop and change, the more confused your guests get," he says.
"They would rather go somewhere where they know they are going to get a drink."
There's no magic trick, no social media algorithm or strategy that will fill the place until it's standing room only. Customers, in that sense, want what they have always wanted.
"We're here to serve," Wilson says.
"People work hard for their money, and when they are paying for a cocktail, they deserve to get quality and to get it quickly."
At Bank Corner on a weekday morning, as the weather cools into winter and a handful of the nine-to-five crowd wait for their order, it's hard to recall that not that long ago we were scared this would all be gone forever.
It has been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Hunter. There was the time before, and the time after. As we get further from it being our present, it becomes clearer that comparing the before and after is futile.
Under the long shadow of the virus, living costs choked the weekly budget in a long and painful hangover of swollen inflation, supply shortages, wage stagnation and unaffordable rent.
In that climate, venue owners say customers are less concerned about superficial luxuries and retail guff. They care about value for money and the sense of reliability in a world swimming upstream against a cascade of modern anxieties.
Alyssa Salamon, the owner of the Newcastle West cafe on Bellevue Street, knows the names of her regulars and their orders by heart. She says Bank Corner customers crave that connection and authenticity.
There is no time before the pandemic for her business to compare with now. She has worked in hospitality for years, but only became the owner of the West End landmark in January last year.
She wants to keep out the sterile modernities that came from the pandemic years: to take the orders herself, make eye contact with her customers, and chat about their day.
There are no screens in the cafe, and little branding. There's no front-facing tablet screen asking for reviews. If the service and the coffee are good, you can mention it to the staff yourself. Chances are, they remember you from last time.
"I think there is something to be said for a cosy little corner where you don't have screens," Salamon says.
"You're not ordering off a QR code menu.
"I've been through my fair share of grieving, and sometimes going to an establishment where you're seen and recognised, and you're held in that bit of gentle space, is important."
Salamon has made gradual progress for the past few months on extending the cafe's hours and securing its liquor license, but she is taking it steadily. She's conscious of not changing too much too quickly, and talks often about respecting the history of the place.
One of her first improvements was to cut a section of bench that had previously jutted out. A patron had dropped by and offered to help, and Salamon was sawing the timber freehand when she went about 10 millimetres off track.
There's a small knot in the side of the bench now, almost invisible if you did not know it was there. For Salamon, it's a stamp of her identity on a place that already has so much of its own.
"It was a beautiful way of christening the space in that it was such a community effort," she says.
The weekday crowd has never really come back to The Kent. Everyone is watching their spending these days, and the cross-town pub that used to cater to the office and retail workers around the suburb is now competing with the fast-and-cheap alternatives.
Still, the 101-year-old Beaumont Street establishment has held on.
"I think people are saving their money for the one night a week to go out," group director Chris Fitzsimmons says.
"You get those nights where it seems like everyone just picked Saturday this week - no one Friday and then, on Saturday, there's a line around the corner."
The venue has been enticing customers back with new lunch specials and pub staples like schnitzels and wings. It has had mixed results, Fitzsimmons says.
"The patterns used to be a lot easier to pick," he says.
"You used to have a better idea of what was going to happen day to day. These days, it's more crystal ball."
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp, who has been involved in a string of revitalisation efforts in the city pre- and post-COVID, says venue owners and managers have been operating in a rapidly changing environment for a long time.
The culture has been turning increasingly to moderation. Rates of drinking, particularly among people under 30, have been steadily declining. Of those who partake, the number of weekly drinkers increasing their intake rose around 2013 and has remained fairly consistent since, according to government data.
"People are going out, but they are finessing where they go," Crakanthorp says, noting a growing preference for small and medium-sized venues.
"The cost of living is driving people out of the city and into the outer suburbs.
"There are a lot of green shoots in the night-time economy. For the bigger ones, it is tough at the moment, but we see positives as well."
Josh Distefano, the owner of Vera Wine on Beaumont Street, believes there's a benefit in having a small and casual space. You can be in and out in 15 minutes, he says, and there have been plenty of customers who have taken him up on the offer.
The three-year-old bottle shop secured a license to serve their wares in-store in November, and has since added a handful of small tables at the front of the shop.
Customers are time-poor. They have commitments and obligations, and those have costs. And costs have gone up.
Distefano is sceptical about the oft-repeated line that customers are looking for boutique experiences, too. When he opened the shop, he wanted to offer something for everyone with an experience that could not be found at the commercial chains.
"People will remember how they felt, more than what they ate," he says.
"Having that connection with your guests is important."
When Distefano received the email from the Newcastle Herald with the news that Audrey Nash, the city's fearless children's advocate, had died last month, he immediately sent a message to her family. Mrs Nash had visited the store a few times over the previous year, and he had got to know her.
"Her family came in that night and had drinks and we were a bit quiet," Distefano says.
"I sat down with them and reminisced. These people become part of your family."
On a Wednesday night, about 9pm, Chris Wilson opens the door to The Koutetsu bar on Hunter Street and immediately puts out his hand.
He has been at work since before 9am, and he won't leave until after closing time, but he greets every customer warmly and asks about their day. This new climate has him feeling like he is building his business all over again, and working the same and longer hours.
He opens the bar four nights a week. He would like to open for seven, but the demand is not there yet.
Uber has been a game changer, helping patrons get around the city on demand. He likes the light rail, but also believes that getting it was a travesty of public planning that almost crippled the city and businesses like his.
"It was so hard to get a taxi in Newcastle, back in the day," he says.
"I know the tram is very polarising and, mind you, I was lucky that it didn't go in front of my business. The people who got through that debacle - hats off to them because that would have been so stressful, but I use it when I can."
Ultimately, he says, the trick to a vibrant social and cultural economy does not come solely from having busy bars and restaurants open all hours. Rather, the city's entire infrastructure must work to serve the population, and one of the happy effects is a thriving hospitality scene.
The veteran barman is a stickler for service. He and his bartenders would rather open for 20 customers and serve each of them with consistently impeccable wares than fill the place to capacity and see customers walking out frustrated over a long wait for a drink.
He could change his hours, or his menu, or his style on a whim, chasing the new flavour of the week. But he says doing so would cost him the patronage he has spent years struggling to build.
"The more you chop and change, the more confused your guests get," he says.
"They would rather go somewhere where they know they are going to get a drink."
There's no magic trick, no social media algorithm or strategy that will fill the place until it's standing room only. Customers, in that sense, want what they have always wanted.
"We're here to serve," Wilson says.
"People work hard for their money, and when they are paying for a cocktail, they deserve to get quality and to get it quickly."
At Bank Corner on a weekday morning, as the weather cools into winter and a handful of the nine-to-five crowd wait for their order, it's hard to recall that not that long ago we were scared this would all be gone forever.
It has been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Hunter. There was the time before, and the time after. As we get further from it being our present, it becomes clearer that comparing the before and after is futile.
Under the long shadow of the virus, living costs choked the weekly budget in a long and painful hangover of swollen inflation, supply shortages, wage stagnation and unaffordable rent.
In that climate, venue owners say customers are less concerned about superficial luxuries and retail guff. They care about value for money and the sense of reliability in a world swimming upstream against a cascade of modern anxieties.
Alyssa Salamon, the owner of the Newcastle West cafe on Bellevue Street, knows the names of her regulars and their orders by heart. She says Bank Corner customers crave that connection and authenticity.
There is no time before the pandemic for her business to compare with now. She has worked in hospitality for years, but only became the owner of the West End landmark in January last year.
She wants to keep out the sterile modernities that came from the pandemic years: to take the orders herself, make eye contact with her customers, and chat about their day.
There are no screens in the cafe, and little branding. There's no front-facing tablet screen asking for reviews. If the service and the coffee are good, you can mention it to the staff yourself. Chances are, they remember you from last time.
"I think there is something to be said for a cosy little corner where you don't have screens," Salamon says.
"You're not ordering off a QR code menu.
"I've been through my fair share of grieving, and sometimes going to an establishment where you're seen and recognised, and you're held in that bit of gentle space, is important."
Salamon has made gradual progress for the past few months on extending the cafe's hours and securing its liquor license, but she is taking it steadily. She's conscious of not changing too much too quickly, and talks often about respecting the history of the place.
One of her first improvements was to cut a section of bench that had previously jutted out. A patron had dropped by and offered to help, and Salamon was sawing the timber freehand when she went about 10 millimetres off track.
There's a small knot in the side of the bench now, almost invisible if you did not know it was there. For Salamon, it's a stamp of her identity on a place that already has so much of its own.
"It was a beautiful way of christening the space in that it was such a community effort," she says.
The weekday crowd has never really come back to The Kent. Everyone is watching their spending these days, and the cross-town pub that used to cater to the office and retail workers around the suburb is now competing with the fast-and-cheap alternatives.
Still, the 101-year-old Beaumont Street establishment has held on.
"I think people are saving their money for the one night a week to go out," group director Chris Fitzsimmons says.
"You get those nights where it seems like everyone just picked Saturday this week - no one Friday and then, on Saturday, there's a line around the corner."
The venue has been enticing customers back with new lunch specials and pub staples like schnitzels and wings. It has had mixed results, Fitzsimmons says.
"The patterns used to be a lot easier to pick," he says.
"You used to have a better idea of what was going to happen day to day. These days, it's more crystal ball."
Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp, who has been involved in a string of revitalisation efforts in the city pre- and post-COVID, says venue owners and managers have been operating in a rapidly changing environment for a long time.
The culture has been turning increasingly to moderation. Rates of drinking, particularly among people under 30, have been steadily declining. Of those who partake, the number of weekly drinkers increasing their intake rose around 2013 and has remained fairly consistent since, according to government data.
"People are going out, but they are finessing where they go," Crakanthorp says, noting a growing preference for small and medium-sized venues.
"The cost of living is driving people out of the city and into the outer suburbs.
"There are a lot of green shoots in the night-time economy. For the bigger ones, it is tough at the moment, but we see positives as well."
Josh Distefano, the owner of Vera Wine on Beaumont Street, believes there's a benefit in having a small and casual space. You can be in and out in 15 minutes, he says, and there have been plenty of customers who have taken him up on the offer.
The three-year-old bottle shop secured a license to serve their wares in-store in November, and has since added a handful of small tables at the front of the shop.
Customers are time-poor. They have commitments and obligations, and those have costs. And costs have gone up.
Distefano is sceptical about the oft-repeated line that customers are looking for boutique experiences, too. When he opened the shop, he wanted to offer something for everyone with an experience that could not be found at the commercial chains.
"People will remember how they felt, more than what they ate," he says.
"Having that connection with your guests is important."
When Distefano received the email from the Newcastle Herald with the news that Audrey Nash, the city's fearless children's advocate, had died last month, he immediately sent a message to her family. Mrs Nash had visited the store a few times over the previous year, and he had got to know her.
"Her family came in that night and had drinks and we were a bit quiet," Distefano says.
"I sat down with them and reminisced. These people become part of your family."
On a Wednesday night, about 9pm, Chris Wilson opens the door to The Koutetsu bar on Hunter Street and immediately puts out his hand.
He has been at work since before 9am, and he won't leave until after closing time, but he greets every customer warmly and asks about their day. This new climate has him feeling like he is building his business all over again, and working the same and longer hours.
He opens the bar four nights a week. He would like to open for seven, but the demand is not there yet.
Uber has been a game changer, helping patrons get around the city on demand. He likes the light rail, but also believes that getting it was a travesty of public planning that almost crippled the city and businesses like his.
"It was so hard to get a taxi in Newcastle, back in the day," he says.
"I know the tram is very polarising and, mind you, I was lucky that it didn't go in front of my business. The people who got through that debacle - hats off to them because that would have been so stressful, but I use it when I can."
Ultimately, he says, the trick to a vibrant social and cultural economy does not come solely from having busy bars and restaurants open all hours. Rather, the city's entire infrastructure must work to serve the population, and one of the happy effects is a thriving hospitality scene.
The veteran barman is a stickler for service. He and his bartenders would rather open for 20 customers and serve each of them with consistently impeccable wares than fill the place to capacity and see customers walking out frustrated over a long wait for a drink.
He could change his hours, or his menu, or his style on a whim, chasing the new flavour of the week. But he says doing so would cost him the patronage he has spent years struggling to build.
"The more you chop and change, the more confused your guests get," he says.
"They would rather go somewhere where they know they are going to get a drink."
There's no magic trick, no social media algorithm or strategy that will fill the place until it's standing room only. Customers, in that sense, want what they have always wanted.
"We're here to serve," Wilson says.
"People work hard for their money, and when they are paying for a cocktail, they deserve to get quality and to get it quickly."