The best day of the year!
3 min read
On Thursday 26th August, as Sydney was in the midst of lockdown, I had a meeting with the then treasurer Dominic Perrottet in a vacant George Street to discuss how our industry would recover and how small businesses and retail could survive once we opened up.
I suggested a long table lunch, from Park Street to King Street, to reignite the CBD. He thought it was a great idea, so much so, that he said he wanted to make it bigger and throw similar events in other parts of town too. So off I went and made some calls!
The first call was to NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller and then to Rob Sharp from Transport NSW to see if it was actually going to be possible to stop the trams on George St (let’s face it, nobody wants a moving tram interrupting their lunch!)
On Sunday 29th August, I asked Ben English, the Editor of The Daily Telegraph, if he would get behind the event. Later that day, Ben spoke to the Treasurer and assured him it would be amazing. It took a few weeks but the traction was starting and things were looking good.
Then, at a dinner meeting on the 22nd October with the now premier, Ben English and Steve Cox from Destination NSW, we shook on it and decided the event would take place on December 3rd with the Daily Telegraph set to make the exclusive announcement and the Destination NSW team to make it all happen.
Come game day, I was up at 2am to bump in and set up. It took an army… but, by noon, we were ready to go: it was show time!
The goal was to open the city for lunch and boy did we do that! I’m not going to lie, the weather forecast didn’t look great all week, but come Friday, the sun was out in full force.
The whole day was designed to help small businesses: we got Palisa Anderson from Chat Thai to do the canapés, Michael Nicolian from Continental Deli to do the entree, and Mike McEnearney from Kitchen by Mike to do the main course. I was on dessert duties (I joked that we saved the best to last!)
The little cafe where Premier Perrottet and I had that first meeting stayed open and served up coffee and pastries for the entire crew who set-up the event.
After the huge success of the day, I’m thrilled that the Premier has now agreed to make Sydney’s Open For Lunch an annual event to ignite our city, create jobs and help small businesses. Huge thanks to Dominic Perrotet, Ben English and Steve Cox and his incredible team from Destination NSW. Wow!
Now that we’ve proven we can stop the trams on George Street, it’s time we all put some real energy into starting the cruise ships again! There was a time when Australia’s cruise industry was the envy of the world, but, as it stands right now, cruise ships once based year-round in Australia are laid up overseas with nowhere to go. Check out a piece a recently wrote for The Australian about how I think we can get this industry back in business again.
Finally, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas. It’s been another challenging year for so many but, hopefully, the spirit of the season brings some much needed joy and respite for you all.
From my family - and my whole team - to you and yours… stay safe, Season’s Greetings and here’s to 2022!
Luke