THE Loxton Hotel’s highly-anticipated new bistro will debut to customers next Monday, signalling the end to stage one of the hotel’s renovations.
Renovations to the front of the hotel have been underway since July last year, and despite COVID-19’s best efforts, local construction company Michael Kregar Building along with architects at Studio 9 have been hard at work to complete the upgrades during lockdown.
“COVID-19 has probably been a good opportunity for Kregars to get stuck into (renovations),” said Darren Morrison, Loxton Hotel general manager.
“They haven’t had to worry about us so much, (and) could make noise and dust, so they really got ahead during the COVID-19 shutdown.
“For the hotel (itself), it hasn’t been that good financially, but we’re hoping with the new renovations, people will come and have a look, and we can catch up a bit of the shortfall.”
As part of the renovations, the dining areas of the hotel now run off the side of the 1908 café, and the kitchen has been fully upgraded.
Mr Morrison said he suspects everything will flow much better now that the hotel’s food operations are all in one area, and that it will be a nicer place for people to come and “have a feed”.
“It’ll be just such a nice area to sit, where you can see out onto the street,” he said.
“It has a really casual feel to it, so that’s going to be good to see, (and) it’s going to be something new for the town.”
It is uncertain yet whether stage two renovations will go ahead, but Mr Morrison said current expenses were around budget, so he was hopeful upgrades would progress.
He also hoped the hotel would become busier in the coming months so staff could be given more hours and the hotel could potentially employ more people.