QHA_Sep-2020_Online

TRUE GRIT SPIRIT
Southern Hotel
“WE TOOK OVER IN THE BEGINNING
OF FEBRUARY 2019, BASICALLY WHEN
THE FLOODS STARTED, HOW’S THAT FOR
TIMING? WE TOOK THE PUB OVER, HAD
SIX MONTHS OF TRAINING AND THEN
COVID SET IN,” DAVID SAID.
Townsville’s Molly Malone’s, David Zellar
QHA REVIEW | 50
“That’s when we sat down and brainstormed what
we were going to do to keep going. We discussed
whether to try to do takeaway food because we’ve
got a very strong food business here,” Richard
explained.
“Generally my kitchen’s under pressure every day
of the week, so we sat down and started talking
to the chefs and we were talking about the job
seeker payments originally because that was the
only incentive at the time. Three of our chefs are
on visas, and each of them are very good, loyal
people who have been with us for a while, but
because they’re on visas, they couldn’t get access
to anything.
“So I decided to have a crack doing takeaway meals
and we kept the kitchen management employed and
those three chefs (because I couldn’t throw them out
on the street - they’d have nothing),” Richard added.
The response was overwhelming and Richard was
blown away by the support of the community,
preparing double the number of meals he had
initially anticipated.
“It doubled my expectations in the first week and
it grew by about 20 per cent in the second week,
about the same in the third week, and then in the
fourth week it grew by 40 per cent,” Richard said.
Thanks to the success of the takeaway meals,
Richard extended the operation to offer a homedelivery
service.
Unlike the Southern Hotel that struck it lucky, other
venues didn’t have the same fortune, and much like
The Met Hotel, Townsville’s Molly Malone’s Irish Pub
had just finished renovations and repairs following
one natural disaster when brothers David and Glenn
Zellar experienced their next battle.
Molly Malone’s
Having purchased the Irish hotel in early February
2019, Townsville experienced one of the worst
flood events in its history, where 3300 homes were
damaged by floodwaters, and about 1500 homes
rendered uninhabitable.
“Thankfully, the venue itself didn’t actually get
flooded out, but there was a lot of water ingress
through the roof and other areas. As a result of the
floods, the center of town was pretty much closed
down for a period of time. So in that time, we had
to get in and make the repairs to the areas where
the water had come in through the roof and then
obviously there was cleaning up around the venue
as well because of the mould and mildew caused
from the flood,” David said.