COVID19 restrictions and the fear of either catching COVID or becoming a close contact is having a devastating impact on some of the cafes in the local area.
To help highlight the plight of local cafes and support our local baristas, local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo is asking enthusiastic coffee drinkers to join him on the first ever Café Crawl of our local cafes.
Mr Piccolo said because of Gawler’s 10 pubs, the town is well known for its pub crawls. Pub Crawls are a well-known social activity for sporting groups at the end of their season.
“The idea of the café crawl is just to let the local café owners know that they are an important part of our local community life and we should do as much as we can to support them.”
“Despite what the Government is spinning, the tills are not ringing, and local café owners are hurting.”
“Some have had to reduce hours of their staff or cut opening times to just hang on.”
The Gawler Heritage Café at the Gawler Railway Station has been hit with a double whammy with the shutdown of the train service reducing sales by over 70% over the past 18 months or so.
Mr Piccolo said café owners still have to pay rent and other costs despite the downturn in patronage.
“I would like to invite local people to join my Café Crawl this coming Friday and Saturday (11th and 12th February) and support our local cafes.”
“And of course, you can also catch up with the local gossip and find out what is brewing around town.”
“I will be promoting the times I will be visiting the various cafes on my social media.”
“With the state election just around the corner, it will also be a good time for people to raise any issues with me.”
The crawl will be officially launched on Wednesday 9th February at 10:00 in the Kingfisher Café in the Hewett Community Centre.
Mr Piccolo said he will be drinking decaf coffee on the day, or else he might be buzzing all day and night.
Asked whether he would be drinking a “Piccolo” or two during the crawl, Tony said the coffees might get smaller as the crawl progresses.