One of Orange's best-known restaurants, Racine, near Lake Canobolas, has closed its doors after nearly 12 years service.
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Willa Arantz, who owns the restaurant with chef husband Shaun, has revealed they will instead focus on expanding their city bakery into a larger cafe on Summer Street.
Mrs Arantz said the fall in trade due to the coronavirus restrictions had not forced the decision.
"In the back of our minds we've been trying to wind up the restaurant in the next 12-18 months," she said.
"Our lease was up."
Mrs Arantz said with growing children they wanted to spend more time as a family.
"We've done our time. We've got little kids. At least we can have night times and Sundays off," she said.
Mrs Arantz said they had taken over a former shoe shop which backed onto their CBD bakery at the Woolworths car park.
This decision to close the restaurant was the best thing we could have done.
- Willa Arantz, co-owner Racine
She said that would give them Summer Street frontage for a sit-down cafe and the bakery will continue to operate, with a kitchen between the two operations.
Mrs Arantz said renovations on the building were starting and they hoped to be able to open by September with plans to open a small bar next year.
"This decision to close the restaurant was the best thing we could have done, we have really enjoyed focussing on our family and the bakery during this time and have found a new zest for Racine as a whole," she said.
"The closures highlighted to us just how exhausted we are by the slog of owning a fine dining restaurant.
"The fun had gone."
"It was increasingly harder to make any profit and the industry itself is not the same as when we started," Mrs Arantz said.
She said they would continue to cater for weddings in the old Apple Packing Shed at Printhie wines' Millwood Vineyard in Nashdale from September.
"We will continue to run this as our own business under the Racine brand, but will use Printhie Wines exclusively for our weddings and events in this space," Mrs Arantz said.
"We also hope to continue to operate a coffee window from this space in the mornings late in the week."
Mrs Arantz also said they were looking to expand a delivery business they had developed during the coronavirus lockdown to supply meals to places around the Orange district including Cargo, Canowindra, Molong, Manildra and Parkes.
"I think it's something we can continue to do," she said.
"We hope to take a van out and we would be at certain spot [at a certain time]. We'll take Racine to you."
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