Vehicle smashes frontage of Half and Half restaurant

A vehicle crashed into the forefront of Half and Half on Thursday night. Photo / Tatiana Brennan

Half and Half restaurant was accidentally introduced to indoor, outdoor dining on Thursday, July 30.

Emergency services responded to a report of a car crashing into the Sloane St building at around 9.25pm.

The vehicle smashed through the building's frontage. Luckily no diners at the window table.

The car was parked as the driver got food at a local establishment. It was thought the handbrake hadn't been applied.

The driver's dog was in the car and was unharmed, although petrified.

Half and Half co-owners Hussain Sabori and Tatiana Brennan were worried for their customers' safety.

However, this wasn't the first incident of this nature. Two weeks previous, Hussain was inside the bar area putting up shelving when he heard a crash.

"I thought it must have been one of my shelves coming down," said Hussain.

A vehicle had narrowly missed the front of the building and curved around the side, hitting their rubbish bins.

This was another case of a parked car where the handbrake hadn't been applied.

Half and Half's quarters are the former Empire Theatre, a heritage building, so the repair process isn't as simple as getting new materials.

In the 15 or so years that the premises have been hospitality based, nothing of the sort had happened before.

Building owners Mike and David Livingstone went down to the building late that night to check out the damage.

They got their Livingstone Building employees to take the damaged metal from the building frontage to be panel beaten, to ensure that it was the original metal.

The owners are liaising with council about getting metal bollards in front of their shop.

"We put a lot of effort into the work and décor changing the place. The last thing we were expecting to do as a new business is to have to put metal bars out the front on the off chance that something like this happens again," said Hussain.

"It was such an unexpected occurrence. I cannot emphasis how thankful we are that nobody was hurt. As restaurateurs, that's our main focus, to make sure that everyone leaves happy."

The business is still running as usual and has been doing well since opening its doors a year ago.