DINERS in northern Victoria have taken to The Bower Tavern at Cohuna like a duck to water, booking it out most Friday and Saturday nights.
Among the attractions are tasty pub favourites as well as restaurant-style fare.
Co-owner Jamie Williams, his wife Vicki and daughter Maddy took over the business in late 2019, just in time to experience the full force of COVID-19 impacts on the hospitality sector.
Mr Williams said they were grateful to the community for its support during the past three and a half years.
“Without those guys that helped us get through COVID, we would have had to close the doors,” he said.
“We barely found our feet and then had to navigate through two years of COVID lockdowns and restrictions, but we got through and now things are picking up.”
Mr Williams said customers were a mix of locals and tourists, although some tourists visited so often they were considered honorary locals.
“You could almost call a lot of the tourists that come up here locals too, because they’re up here every year or every Christmas, and some are up here every weekend,” he said.
The Christmas-school holiday period was surprisingly busy, thanks to new faces who might normally have gone camping or bushwalking in places that were yet to recover from last year’s flooding.
Mr Williams said the most popular dishes on their seasonal menu were the crispy salmon and the signature scotch fillet steaks.
His personal favourite was the crispy grilled salmon fillet served with either pea and parsnip puree or a fennel and green apple salad.
“Salmon is not for everyone but it certainly does sell well,” he said.
Thursday nights are parma night, when diners can choose from 10 different styles of parmigiana, and the menu includes weekly and daily chef’s specials.
“We’ve got a fairly passionate and inventive head chef who thinks out of the box and puts some good stuff together,” he said.
Mr Williams said the historic building – built with a sliding roof – operated as an open air theatre from 1925 to 1938 before being repurposed as a packing facility during World War II, then a hosiery mill and electrical store. It became The Bower Restaurant in the 1980s and has been The Bower Tavern since 1989.
Upstairs is a function room which can be hired for functions, parties and meetings.
The Bower Tavern is open seven days for lunch, Monday to Saturday for dinner, and Sunday mornings for a leisurely breakfast from 9am. Meals are also available to take away.
