Former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews and his wife were refused bookings at popular Melbourne restaurants during the Covid pandemic after facing backlash from the city’s hospitality industry over the state’s strict lockdown.
Restaurateur Chris Lucas said Mr Andrews’ wife Cath called up his venue, Hawker Hall, in Melbourne’s southeast, asking for a table, and he told her: ‘Sorry, it’s not available.’
He also revealed Di Stasio, a famed Melbourne restaurant that is not part of his hospitality group, also refused Mr Andrews a booking for his birthday around the same period.
Both Lucas along with Di Stasio’s owner Rinaldo Di Stasio have been vocal critics of Andrews, particularly in relation to his hardline approach to the Covid lockdowns that crippled Melbourne’s hospitality industry.
‘Look, he’s got his own cross to bear but we’re allowed to disagree right? We live in a democracy,’ Lucas recently told the Australian Financial Review.
When Andrews revealed in late 2020 that he intended to prolong Victoria’s state of emergency for another 12 months, Lucas called it ‘catastrophic’ for Australia’s cultural capital and said it was like Andrews had ‘dropped a bomb’.
‘He’s treating us like fools, quite frankly,’ Lucas said at the time.
‘I don’t think the Premier has any sensitivity or compassion and if he does he is certainly not exhibiting it.’
Dan and Catherin Andrews attend the NGV Gala 2019 at the National Gallery of Victoria
Restaurateur Chris Lucas from LUCAS Group with his daughter Holly who is also the company’s brand manager
Lucas Group boasts a number of Melbourne dining institutions among its restaurants including Grill Americano, Kisumé, Society and Chin Chin.
‘To simply come out and demand that he wants these powers given to him in an unprecedented form, it just smacks of insensitivity. Quite frankly we’re sick of it,’ Lucas said.
He later said in 2022: ‘We are a shadow of the industry that we were before Covid.
‘Two years of lockdown caused so much trauma for us, not just financially, but also emotionally, it left many scars on this city.’
Mr Di Stasio, meanwhile, took out a full-page ad in The Australian in late 2020 accusing the Dan Andrews’ government, along with the then Scott Morrison-led federal government, of abandoning the hospitality industry.
‘The neglect of temporary visa workers, skilled taxpaying members of our workforce is not only shameful, it will cripple hospitality and tourism moving forward,’ he wrote in the ad.
Popular Melbourne restaurant Di Stasio (pictured) refused Dan Andrews a table for his birthday bash when restaurants were allowed to open during Covid
He said he was worried his beloved industry was looking at ‘total ruin’ and said ‘political agendas had failed us’.
‘I invite our leaders and you to come to the table and make a positive contribution,’ he said.
As long as that table isn’t at Di Stasio for a birthday celebration, it seems.
The restaurants weren’t the only places to give Andrews the cold shoulder following his controversial Covid approach.
Members of Melbourne’s prestigious National Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula last year banded together to protest Andrews interest in joining.
A letter sent to the club committee claimed more than 100 members ‘expressed a clear stance against … Daniel Andrews’ potential membership’.
‘I seek assurances for myself and fellow members that should Daniel Andrews express interest in joining the National Golf Club that his application would undergo the standard membership approval process,’ the letter said.
