Adelaide’s Golden Boy restaurant is golden after all
Adelaide restaurant Golden Boy has had charges dropped for breaching COVID-19 capacity restrictions.
A $5000 fine was issued to the Thai restaurant last November at a time when only 100 seated diners were permitted in restaurants, provided this didn’t amount to more than one person per four square meters.
Golden Boy licensee James Hillier told the Adelaide Magistrates Court that he had received "very little detail" in relation to why he was fined and asked whether it could be challenged.
He spoke to reporters in July saying, "We were visited [by police] on the night, a headcount was done under the recently altered conditions that we were trading under … and between eight and 12 weeks later, we received an expiation.
"I'm confident if we work through the evidence with the police, we will either reach some form of compromise, or we will accept the expiation as it stands."
He said his venue had been trying to adhere to venue capacity restrictions during a very challenging time.
"It's a multi-zone venue, but our staff are very vigilant — we have three managers on every night, we have multiple COVID marshals depending on the section they're working — and, so far, we're really happy with how it's gone," he said.
"Every business has difficulties — some more than others. It's just a challenging time for everyone, but we're no better or worse off than anyone else.
"Hopefully, once vaccination levels get up to a certain point, we can relax to a point where it's not so difficult to meet the conditions."
Irit Jackson, 2nd December 2021
