Yahoo Finance ‘End of an era’: Popular Sydney KBBQ eatery Madang shuts down
A popular Korean barbeque hailed as ‘Sydney’s best Korean restaurant’ is one of the latest small businesses to buckle under the strain of Sydney’s protracted lockdown.
Madang is a late-night restaurant based in the CBD’s ‘Korea-town’ that has been in business for more than a decade and earnt a five-star rating on Facebook.
But on Saturday, the popular eatery announced to its followers that it was shutting its doors for good.
“We hope you guys are doing well. We are permanently closing on 10 of July 2021,” the restaurant said in an identical Facebook and Instagram post.
“We are very sorry for closing down permanently over your support and love for us [sic].”
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If there are any future plans to reopen, the restaurant said it would post updates through Facebook, Instagram and Google.
“We really appreciate your love since 2006. We will remember your support and love for us forever.”
The Korean restaurant’s Facebook post has already amassed several hundred likes, shares and comments, with Sydneysiders pouring in their tributes, tagging their friends and mourning the closure of the restaurant.
Several commenters hailed the restaurant as the “best in Sydney” and said the news was “absolutely devastating”.
“Feels like the end of an era,” one Facebook commenter said.
Another commenter said he was “beyond upset” about the closure. “All time fav[ourite] restaurant,” the Facebook user said.
He urged the restaurant to reconsider opening somewhere else.
“Please consider reopening, even if somewhere else or a smaller scale, as you have a large following, including dozens who ... have become loyal repeat customers.”
Another on Instagram said: “The world won’t be the same without you and Madang.”
Yahoo Finance has reached out to Madang for further comment.
Small businesses ‘on their f**king knees’
The closure comes as NSW businesses and NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet press the Morrison Government for further financial support.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that further business support would be announced later this week.
“The New South Wales Government has done a lot of work in this regard and I hope to have something to announce within the next couple of days. It is imminent, can I say,” she said on Monday morning.
Over the weekend, entrepreneur and businessman Mark Bouris delivered a sharp criticism of leadership on state and federal levels, arguing that small businesses were on their “absolute f**king knees” and had been left behind by policymakers.
“From a small business point of view, we don’t see this as all of us acting together,” Bouris said in an Instagram video posted on Sunday.
“Because we, the small business community, are having a disproportionate hit in terms of our income relative to what everybody else is getting,” he said.
“I don’t know who’s running the show. Federal government and [state] premiers don’t agree. Health ministers don’t agree, and health advice doesn’t agree with each other. It’s becoming quite divisive,” Bouris said.
He called on politicians to come forward and announce a reduction in their income for the duration of the lockdown to demonstrate they were really on the side of small business.
“That particular individual would be a true leader in my eyes.”
“Real leadership is about being inclusive.”
Sydney’s three-week lockdown will likely be extended as NSW records higher locally acquired COVID-19 cases every passing day.
NSW on Monday announced 112 new cases of the virus, the highest number recorded since the start of the latest outbreak.
At least 34 people were in the community whilst infectious, and 64 are linked to a known case or cluster.
Do you know of any popular Sydney institutions that have shut down as a result of the latest lockdown? Drop us a line at jessica.yun@yahoofinance.com.
Read next: NSW Covid cases soar into triple figures
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