Popular city restaurant Red Spice Road is reopening as former employees hope for payment

Popular Melbourne restaurant Red Spice Road has announced its imminent reopening after a 15-month closure and hopes to give some staff their jobs back, as well as hunting for new employees.

A post on its Facebook and Instagram accounts on Monday trumpeted "the pork belly is coming back!" Responses include excited post-lockdown planning from fans of the south-east Asian institution ("this is the most wonderful news!") and questions about the money owed when it closed during Melbourne's first lockdown.

The company that employed staff at Red Spice Road, R Personnel, went into liquidation after the May 2020 restaurant closure. Australian staff received their pay and entitlements via the Federal government's Fair Entitlements Guarantee but temporary visa holders are not covered by the scheme. Among them are head chef Sungeon Mo, owed $36,554.09, and events and reservations manager Laura Dauphin, owed $11,500. It is not clear if they will recover anything from the liquidators.

Staff who had been working at the 300-seat restaurant before its closure in May 2020 recently received an email from director Andrew Cameron inviting them to reapply for positions. The email blamed reports by this masthead for delays in reopening Red Spice Road and included a promise that non-resident visa holders would receive some of their entitlements that were lost in the former company's collapse.

The letter states, in part: "There has been a bit in the press about the restaurant that meant we were unable to reopen in March as initially planned. A lot of this was surrounding the lack of Government support for visa holders compared with resident staff, which was inequitable and wrong. Still, unfortunately, we could not do anything about it. As part of the reopening, the people 'left behind by the system' will get most if not all of the entitlements they lost when we closed."

"Red Spice Road was an institution," says ex-general manager Christian Price. "For our hospitality industry, it's good to see that they are reopening. They've burnt a lot of bridges but good luck to them." He's in touch with most of the 2020 team. "None of the guys that I worked with want to go back," says Price. "They all have jobs." That's despite the $1000 staff referral bonus offered by Red Spice Road, a sign of the worker shortage in Australian hospitality.

Suppliers are still owed money by Apples and Pears Entertainment Group, the entity that paid suppliers for goods such as cleaning products and food. Cleaning product supplier Jim Gillman is owed about $6000. "I've registered a request to be kept informed but I've received nothing beyond an initial notice that an administrator was appointed," he says. Gillman would supply the restaurant again. "The business is worthwhile moving forward," he says. "It would take a conversation but I would consider it."

Another supplier, who preferred to remain anonymous, is owed $8500. "We are a small family-owned business," she says. "They are not the only restaurant that's gone bust. With every lockdown you lose one or two more."

She hopes the restaurant is able to start trading again. "They were a great restaurant. I know there are a lot of staff that were really hurt by them but I don't think I'd say no."

Director Andrew Cameron did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.