Covid 19 coronavirus: Britomart bar owner Nick McCaw calls HeadQuarters’ Leo Molloy childish

A leading Auckland restaurant founder is calling for calm and patience in the hotel industry, saying that bars and restaurants should follow Level 2 rules, not try to circumvent them.

Britomart Hospitality Group’s Nick McCaw is speaking after HeadQuarters bar owner Leo Molloy confirmed his 100-person party would take place on Friday, and following a tirade on social media on the bar’s Facebook page HeadQuarters, owned by Molloy.

The post, which has since been removed, pointed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s stance that the bars were high risk for spreading Covid-19. The cabinet decided on Monday that while restaurants could open from midnight tonight, bars had to delay opening until next Thursday.

A previously established limit of 100 people for indoor meetings had also been lowered to 10.

When asked about the party planned for Molloy today, Ardern said New Zealand would act under Anzac’s provisions this weekend and that there could be no groups of more than 10.

I wasn’t sure what relationship Molloy had with the police.

Molloy had planned to hold a 100-person party at the HeadQuarters bar this Friday, with a series of high-profile guests. Following Monday’s announcement, he confirmed that he still plans to do so, but says they should stick to bubbles of 10 or fewer people.

Molloy’s guest list would include Destiny Church’s Brian and Hannah Tamaki, John Tamihere, MP MP Nikki Kaye, Deputy National Director Paula Bennett and Sir Graham Henry.

Kaye has told the Herald that she will not go, but would see her mother. The Herald has been unable to verify whether other named guests would attend.

Molloy has promised that all attendees will comply with the restrictions, which include sitting and having an individual table service.

But McCaw, founder and owner of Mexico, Better Burger, Orleans and several other places, felt that putting 100 people in a bar “muddies the waters” for other places trying to follow the rules.

“It makes other operators think about how to circumvent the intention of the restrictions and none of that is good for us as an industry or society.”

Bars and restaurants had been badly hit by the blockade and tier 3 restrictions, but most of the industry was working hard to return in a way that met the requirements, he said.

McCaw said Molloy was a “good operator” and that he had a great place. But he believed Molloy was “behaving like a child at a time when the entire industry needs calm and a measured and sensible approach.”

Molloy said tonight that he had no idea who McCaw was and that he did not want to comment.

“As of tomorrow I am allowed to open and exchange, but no. On Friday I am going to gently relax in this system. I have confirmed and consulted with all relevant authorities on how we could do so before we formally opened on Tuesday,” Molloy said.

McCaw believed that the government’s general approach had been fair throughout the crisis, despite the harsh calls that were made.

“Many industries have been identified and restricted … but that’s the way of life, that’s the situation and that’s what we’re, together, to get out of the other side.”

• Covid19.govt.nz – The official government Covid-19 advisory website

The work the government had done was impossibly difficult and each decision would harm someone, he said.

“That doesn’t mean that there were no mistakes or ways that things could have been done better,” he said. “But I am really grateful that we seem to come out of this with minimal loss of life.”

Several McCaw nightclubs and cocktail bars won’t open tomorrow. This includes the Caretaker cocktail bar in Britomart, a sitting place that had a “strong argument” that it could technically open, but had decided not to.

However, all five restaurants in Mexico would open tomorrow, which was “fantastic.”

“We are really delighted with the number of customers who have contacted us in the past few days to reserve tables,” he said.

“I think the opportunity is going to be there to get things back to normal. It will be difficult to negotiate really well under the current restrictions, but at least we are open and grateful.”

I wanted people to focus on doing what they could to stay positive.

“If everyone wants to choose one thing that hurts them, we will never get over it.”