Evening trading until 11pm welcomed by most
An application to extend evening trading hours at the newly opened Barrenjoey Boatshed in Palm Beach has seen 150 submissions to Northern Beaches Council – but most are in favour of the change.
To be known as ‘The Joey,’ the restaurant opened on 15 February after a multi-million dollar refurbishment to repair the wharf and update the historic site, which has seen the original Boathouse Palm Beach café closed for almost four years.
The restaurant currently has approval to trade in the evenings until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays (during daylight savings), but wants to extend hours until 11pm, seven days a week all year.
The restaurant is awaiting a decision from council following the end of the exhibition period.
Business owner Rob Domjen, who leases the restaurant with business partner Ben May, told Peninsula Living Pittwater that nearby Dunes restaurant has a license to operate until midnight Tuesday to Sunday – so he doesn’t see why The Joey should be any different.
“As it stands, when daylight savings finishes, we have to close at 4pm every single day,” said Mr Domjen. “It’s pretty crazy. There are not many restaurants in the country, if any, that are restricted by those hours in winter.”
Those who objected to the extended hours voiced concerns about noise levels carrying to local residences. Others in favour of the extended hours said that the restaurant was isolated, and they ‘could not understand’ the objections.
“We don’t have any neighbours,” said Mr Domjen. “We obey the rules. We’ve got a good track record of always trading within our trading hours and we don’t push that. We don’t play loud music here. We’ve got to stick to our decibel readings, and we always would.”
One objector questioned whether the reason for extended hours was to have weddings in the evenings. “We’ve got the odd wedding that has live music, but if we could get these hours approved, we would happily negotiate what that meant,” Mr Domjen clarified.
“We don’t really have any neighbours, but we always want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.
“So if it meant no live music, we could probably address that.”
The Boathouse Group, owner of nearby Barrenjoey House, previously leased the site, but did not win the tender to run the new restaurant.