Local Hobart Restaurant Closure Has Not Deterred Apocalypse Eats Founder From Continuing Work On The Food Delivery Platform

Coronavirus and the restrictions that it has brought with it has had a massive impact on the Tasmanian restaurant industry and unfortunately Hobart’s Oddfellows Bar & Eatery have been forced to permanently close their doors after fighting to save their business during the virus.

Oddfellows had been running for just over 12 months before making the difficult decision to shut down due to the unforeseen circumstances of Covid-19 and the impacts that it has had on the business.

Chloe Proud, Oddfellows Bar & Eatery owner/operator is a passionate restaurateur who is also the driving force behind developing the all-Tasmanian online food delivery service called Apocalypse Eats.

Proud spoke about the hard decision that she had to make for her business but how she is still determined to help others in the industry into the future.

She says that she has found peace with her and her restaurant partners decision and that at the end of the day closing the doors was the smartest thing to do with the restrictions and unpredictability of Covid-19.

“We have had some amazing community support and people are coming out and spending but it does need to be understood that a business like ours runs off having 100-150 people through the door every day so making a very quick knee jerk pivot into a business model that works in these current restrictions just isn’t viable for us.”

Proud says that it is upset that many of her fellow operators are in the same circumstance as her and her business. However, she wants people to stay motivated, get support during these tough times and look towards a thriving future.

She hopes to aid in re-building Tasmania’s food and restaurant industry by creating a mentor program, gaining funding from the government and continuing to work on Apocalypse Eats.

“[Apocalypse Eats] is not stopping to be honest and we are looking at this as our opportunity to kind of re-steer our path into pursing this a bit more and using our story as a bit of a messaging around this in terms of making sure that there is some more direct industry support.”