Former Victorian premier Dan Andrews and his wife were denied bookings at popular Melbourne restaurants during the Covid pandemic as revenge by the city’s hospitality industry for the state’s long, strict lockdown.
Restaurateur Chris Lucas has revealed that when Mr Andrews’ wife Cath called to book a table at his restaurant Hawker Hall in Melbourne’s south-east, he told her: “Sorry, it’s not available.”
Lucas revealed that Di Stasio, a famous Melbourne restaurant not part of his hotel group, also denied Andrews a reservation for his birthday around the same period.
Both Lucas and Di Stasio’s owner Rinaldo Di Stasio were openly critical of Andrews’ hardline approach to Covid, which saw Melbourne suffer the longest lockdowns in the world, crippling the city’s once famous hospitality industry.
‘He has his own cross to bear, but we are 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 extend Victoria’s state of emergency for another 12 months, Lucas called it “catastrophic” and said it was as if Andrews had “dropped a bomb”.
“Frankly, he’s treating us like fools,” Lucas said at the time.
“I don’t think the Prime Minister has any sensitivity or compassion and if he does, he certainly isn’t showing it.”
Dan and Catherin Andrews attend the 2019 NGV Gala at the National Gallery of Victoria
Restaurateur Chris Lucas of the LUCAS Group with his daughter Holly, who is also the company’s brand director.
Lucas Group counts several Melbourne dining institutions among its restaurants, including Grill Americano, Kisumé, Society and Chin Chin.
“To simply come out and demand that these powers be granted in an unprecedented way smacks of insensitivity. “Frankly, we are sick of this,” Lucas said of the tough Covid lockdowns at Andrews.
He later said in 2022: ‘We are a shadow of the industry we were before Covid.
“Two years of lockdown caused us so much trauma, not only financially, but emotionally, that it left a lot of scars on this city.”
Di Stasio took out a full-page advert in The Australian in late 2020 accusing the Andrews government, along with the federal government then led by Scott Morrison, of abandoning the hospitality industry.
“The abandonment of temporary visa workers, qualified, tax-paying members of our workforce, is not only shameful, but will cripple future hospitality and tourism,” he wrote in the announcement.
Popular Melbourne restaurant Di Stasio (pictured) denied Dan Andrews a table for his birthday party when restaurants were allowed to open during Covid.
He said he was worried his beloved industry was on the brink of “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.
It seems that that table simply wasn’t at Di Stasio.
Restaurants were not the only venues to turn their backs on Andrews following his controversial approach to Covid.
Members of the prestigious Melbourne National Golf Club, on the Mornington Peninsula, banded together last year to block Andrews’ interest in joining.
A letter sent to the club committee stated that more than 100 members “expressed a clear stance against” his potential membership.
“I am seeking assurances to myself and my colleagues that, should Daniel Andrews express interest in joining the National Golf Club, his application would be subject to the standard membership approval process,” the letter said.
Andrews was Victorian premier for 10 years before resigning at the end of 2023 and taking a new role at Orygen, a mental health organisation.