The region's snap lockdown announcement on Tuesday evening sent hospitality venues across Orange scrambling to pivot to tough new COVID restrictions.
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As per the NSW government's stay-at-home orders, cafes, restaurants and pubs in the Orange, Cabonne and Blayney local government areas needed to shut-up shop for a week if they were unable to offer food and drink for take-away.
As Orange residents awoke to lockdown on Wednesday morning, many businesses started the day with drastic changes to try and ensure they could keep trading.
While many cafes continued their morning coffee service, some adopted measures to enable maximum COVID-safety.
Initially Birdie Noshery and Drinking Establishment set up a food and drink window for customers to pick-up items however made the decision on Thursday to discontinue the service saying it had proven to be "counterproductive financially".
The Birdie team, who also own Lolli Redini, is offering pre-ordered take-away evening meals from it's Sale Street operation.
Summer Street café Bensons made the entirety of its take-away menu visible from the footpath outside.
Unfortunately, there was still little to alleviate the financial and mental stress a week-long lockdown was going to mean for many small businesses.
However, according to owner Katie Baddock, the first day of lockdown was still the cafe's quietest in its five years of operating.
"Today's been a hard day. Everything's still a bit unknown, and as a business owner, you're trying to make strong and consistent [decisions] for your staff and for your team," she said.
"There are [COVID] cases in our region now so there is a little bit more panic than what there was last time.
Ms Baddock said this was the case with many of the city's hospitality businesses. Although Orange had seen a big boost from regional tourism from June onwards in 2020, many small businesses were still recovering from the financial strain and stress from the early months of the pandemic.
"We've done it before and we can get through it again but it's not something that anyone who owns a business or works in small business, or even lives in a tight-knit community, wants to see anyone go through again," she said.
Under the state government's lockdown restrictions, food and drink premises in the Blayney, Cabonne and Orange local government areas must be closed to the public unless they are selling food or beverages to people to consume off-site.
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