Newcastle's Bar Petite will close its doors next week after losing the lease on its venue.
Owner Mick Kearney and manager Kieran Sheather posted a message on Facebook on Wednesday announcing the bar's closure on Sunday, April 30, after 14 years of trading.
The farewell message highlighted many of the challenges small businesses in Newcastle have faced over the past five years, including light rail construction, Supercars track works and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It will be unsurprising to anyone who's shared a drink in a bar in the last three years to hear that business in hospitality has been a rather dizzying cocktail," the pair wrote.
"COVID lockdowns brought uncertainty, loss of trade, dead rent and supply issues.
"We then fielded months of being open with non-viable patron limits before months back into lockdown, rinse and repeat."
Bar Petite is on the ground floor of the Novotel Hotel building near Newcastle beach.
Mr Kearney told the Newcastle Herald on Thursday that Supercars had been "the nail in the coffin" for the business, even though the loss of the lease was not related to the bar's viability.
"The V8s need to subsidise small business. We're losing money for eight weeks," he said. "I've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"The first year was good, but not the rest. I thought this year would be great, but the Friday and the Sunday were both dead. It's sending people broke or backwards. It's not good for the city."
Mr Kearney and Mr Sheather wrote that the pandemic had left "fierce staff shortages" and "burnout ... for the staff that stuck it out".
"We endured months of light rail construction road closures, the chaser then being months again of road works/closures to the East End for the initial Supercars track.
"And, more recently, we've seen economic shifts that have pushed the entertainment and hospitality industries into a category of 'unnecessary spending' for many people dealing with their own difficult versions of these last few years.
"Such are the ebbs and flows of looming recession.
"We've managed to weather it to now, and nothing would give us greater pleasure than to keep on doing what we do.
"But after all these things, unfortunately, it's a lease issue that brings Bar Petite's doors to a final close.
"Aside from masks and QR codes, COVID ushered in a host of tensions on both sides of the commercial tenancy fence and after years of back-and-forth we lost the option on our lease.
"The notice is sudden, and we're deeply disappointed to be packing down and calling last drinks for a final time."
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