OPINION: A spate of restaurant closures highlights a worrying trend in Perth’s hospitality scene.
PERTH’S hospitality sector is experiencing its worst sustained crisis since the pandemic, and unlike the pandemic, there is no government lifeline, no rent moratorium, no JobKeeper.
This time, the industry is simply bleeding out, quietly, one closed door at a time.
By now you’ve seen the announcements. Bar Lafayette. W Churchill. Fleur. Young George. Nieuw Ruin.
These weren’t struggling venues limping toward an inevitable end. They were some of the city’s most respected and loved venues; and now, they’re gone.
Restaurants have always operated on thin margins, but the balance has shifted. Fixed costs, especially rent, remain high, while input costs across food, labour and utilities continue to rise. Meanwhile, revenue is limited by consumers who are increasingly price conscious.
There is no obvious lever to pull.
Labour compounds the challenge, especially in a market like Perth. Hospitality is inherently labour-intensive, often requiring multiple staff to service a single customer, yet the available workforce is shrinking.
Fly-in-fly-out roles offer skilled workers six-figure salaries, structured rosters, and significantly more predictable hours than a commercial kitchen.
When those workers return to hospitality, they do so on different terms. Operators are left with a difficult choice: absorb higher wage expectations, tightening already thin margins, or reduce staffing and risk compromising the quality that made their venues worth visiting in the first place.
Layered on top of this is the reality of rent. In many of Perth’s key hospitality precincts, leases were signed in a very different market, with expectations of growth that haven’t played out.
Rents have stayed high despite softer trading conditions, fewer peak nights, and changing foot traffic. As leases come up for renewal, operators are increasingly facing tough decisions, accept higher costs or walk away.
It’s often the pressure point that tips a venue over the edge.
Additionally, work-from-home didn’t just change where people work, it changed when, and whether, they go out, dismantling the traditional hospitality week.
Fridays in the city once drove peak trade until Thursdays took over, backed by City of Perth campaigns like “Let’s Thursday Like It’s Friday” to pull after-work crowds into the CBD.
Today, neither delivers the same pull. And when foot traffic falls, already thin margins vanish quickly.
The marketing paradox adds another layer of pressure. A venue engaging an agency, running paid media, and investing in professional content can easily spend $5,000 a month before a single plate is served.
For many operators, that level of investment is unsustainable.
So great venues go undiscovered, and the ones with a bigger budget spend it on Instagram ads targeting people who are increasingly choosing the Sunday run club over a Sunday session.
Hospitality is no longer just competing with other venues, it’s competing with a new set of lifestyle choices. Perth’s relationship with going out is shifting. Run clubs are replacing bar crawls.
Sunday saunas and cold plunges are replacing the Sunday session. Weekend farmers markets are the new social hubs, where matcha replaces cocktails, and connection is built around wellbeing.
Perth has always been a city that undervalues what it has until it is gone. We are seeing that again, one closed door at a time.
The question is whether enough people, diners, landlords, policymakers, and developers are paying attention before the list grows much longer. The traditional operating model is under clear pressure.
This is not the end of the story, it’s the end of a chapter.
• Taylor James is founder of social media promotion platform Good Feed
