While the pubs and clubs around the country have received some good news in the form of eased restrictions as of Wednesday, May 13, not everyone will be able to take advantage of the new permissions handed down by the NSW state government.
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Although ten patrons can now attend pubs and other venues from May 15, in line with relaxed rules extended to cafes and restaurants earlier in the week, at least one pub won't be in a rush to throw open it's doors come Friday.
The Devil's Elbow Brewery are remaining committed to providing their current takeaway only system, noting that the low number of patrons allowed in at a time just isn't financially viable for them at the moment, according to marketing manager Leanne O'Sullivan.
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"Basically, we won't be changing what we're doing at the moment, even though some venues can open for ten, we won't be actually opening for sitdown, it's just not viable in a venue our size to operate like that," Ms O'Sullivan said.
"We'll continue with the takeaway for now and we're hoping maybe the government will be able to move quickly and if everything goes to plan, we might be able to move through a lot faster."
Currently, there's no hard date provided by the state government for when restriction easing would progress to stage 3, but a June or July date has been discussed and anticipated by some in the industry.
"The timeline for ten going to twenty, then fifty and one hundred might be a bit quicker, we hope, especially given we're in a regional area with no new cases," Ms O'Sullivan said.
While the battle to keep the lights on hasn't been an easy one, the Devil's Elbow has managed to soften the blow by making use of the JobKeeper payments and other measures, along with a helping hand from the Dubbo community.
"Everybody that was entitled that we could claim, we have and it enabled us to keep our bar staff so we could deploy them in other areas, we've kept them on, so that's fantastic," Ms O'Sullivan said.
"Obviously, it's only applicable to people who are full time or casuals for a long time, so that's been tricky to make sure that the roster is as fair as possible to our core team, so we keep them on."
"It's been really difficult, but we've had a lot of support from our regulars and the people in Dubbo."
For now, the Devil's Elbow will be counting on that support more than ever before, with Ms O'Sullivan thanking the community for their patience so far.
"What we need to do make sure everyone is safe and we can have a sustainable business."
