Former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews and his wife were refused bookings at popular Melbourne restaurants during the Covid pandemic as payback from the city’s hospitality industry over the state’s long and strict lockdown.
Restaurateur Chris Lucas has revealed that when Mr Andrews’ wife Cath called up to book a table at his eatery Hawker Hall in Melbourne’s southeast, he told her: ‘Sorry, it’s not available.’
Mr Lucas 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 and Di Stasio’s owner Rinaldo Di Stasio were outspoken critics of Mr Andrews’ hardline approach to Covid which saw Melbourne suffer the longest lockdowns in the world, crippling the city’s once famed hospitality industry.
‘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’ 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 Catherine 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 about Andrews’ harsh Covid lockdowns.
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 took out a full-page ad in The Australian in late 2020 accusing the 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.
It seems that table just wasn’t at Di Stasio.
The restaurants were not 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 block Mr Andrews’ interest in joining.
A letter sent to the club committee claimed more than 100 members ‘expressed a clear stance against’ his 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.
Andrews was Victorian Premier for 10 years before he resigned in late 2023 and he has taken on a new role at Orygen, a mental health organisation.
