Ewen McRae
The Bacchus Marsh community loves their chicken parma.
With the humble pub parma a rarity these days after pubs closing their doors several weeks ago, one Bacchus Marsh pub has seen an extraordinary uptake of their new takeaway service, with the parma leading the way.
Stoney’s Club in Maddingley began offering a takeaway menu as a way of generating some business during the lockdown, but venue manager Rachel Lewis said she has been amazed by the response from the community.
“I would never have thought the pub and hospitality sector would ever be shut down, so we had to modify our business,“ Ms Lewis said.
“We mainly did it to stay connected to our members and the local community, and we weren’t sure what to expect.
“I think we’ve sold 1100 parmas since the start of April, and I think we’ve had 1300 orders all up, so that’s amazing support from the local community.“
Ms Lewis said she underestimated just how much people missed heading down to their local pub for a feed and she planned to make the takeaway portion of their menu a permanent feature once the venue was back to normal.
“The support for local business all over Bacchus Marsh has been great to see,“ she said.
“We’ve had people tell us how much it means to them to have this service around, and being able to help people out with food for a special occasion, or just an easy meal on a weeknight has been really important.
“This was always a temporary measure to bring this in, but it’s been so successful we’d be crazy to not still provide this service to the locals when we re-open for patrons.“
Ewen McRae
