With memories of last weekend looming, Bondi reopens for business

North Bondi Fish is quiet for the week before Christmas but general manager Mark Fantasia is unfazed.

His restaurant was full last Sunday night when he heard the shots that ended the lives of 15 people when a father and son fired on attendees at a celebration to mark Hanukkah, the festival of lights.

“People started running off the hill, off the street, and then everywhere.”

On Thursday, the popular restaurant – which usually has queues out the door at this time of year to where a flag now flies at half-mast – decided to reopen, despite people staying away from the beach.

There have been 800 booking cancellations, Fantasia said, but he believes it is important to try to return Bondi to its old way of life.

“The reason why we’re open is that in Australia, at the beach in summer, you’re supposed to be able to come and have a safe, fun time,” he said.

“It does not matter who you are, what you believe, what you dress like, what you look like, what god you pray to, none of that stuff – so long as you can respect the rights of every other Australian.

“I feel like the reason why I’m speaking is not to get my name in the paper but to be a defender of the way of life.”

Last Sunday, North Bondi Fish was one of the many businesses that opened their doors to people seeking shelter from the gunfire. Over the past few days, restaurants and cafes have slowly reopened their doors.

Fantasia had recognised the sound of gunshots from living for a decade in Los Angeles, where knowing first aid and how to stanch the bleeding of a gunshot wound was routine for hospitality workers. Restaurants there are regarded as sanctuaries.

He got everyone inside and told them to stay away from the windows and doors. He then ventured as far as the edge of Archer Park where the shooting happened, only to be confronted with images familiar to anyone who watched the news or read a newspaper last week.

He returned to the restaurant and told patrons service had been suspended and that the restaurant was in lockdown but stressed it wasn’t a prison. Anyone was free to go.

Nobody did. They hid throughout the restaurant. Many have emailed to thank him and staff over the past days.

Ahead of its reopening, counselling was offered to staff by the restaurant’s owners, Solotel, and only those staff who felt up to returning did so.

The fish restaurant is located under North Bondi RSL, where hundreds of people sought refuge last Sunday.

Yesterday, the RSL was still doing that, with most of its premises turned into a NSW government support hub where people offered financial help.

Counsellors from Lifeline and others were offering help. On the beach and parks, chaplains and mental health workers roamed.

People needed it. When a chopper went overhead on Saturday morning, everyone presumed the worst. A photographer for this masthead said he now pulls his long lens out of his bag so everyone can see it is not some high-powered rifle.

Standing in front of his pizza ovens, Ali Haider, the manager of Doughboy Pizza near the beach, recounted how terrifying last Sunday had been.

“Everyone was just running. They were scared. They came from other suburbs, like Parramatta,” he said. The buses had stopped and nobody knew where to go or how or if they could get home.

“We have to give them escape and hide them,” Haider said. They hid people in the back of the restaurant in a locked storeroom. Like others, he spoke of children separated from parents.

A pharmacist in North Bondi, who didn’t want to be named, refused to shut his doors because his shop was full of first aid. He stayed open until 11pm on Sunday night.

A week later, normally busy restaurants are slow. Queues for ice-creams, smoothies and food are short, and getting a choice table with a view of the beach at the Pavilion is comparatively easy.

Impromptu shrines are everywhere, many people carry bouquets, and the local supermarket said they were selling many flowers. Many groups are huddled together in tears.

But the sounds of normality have returned: a dad calling to his partner to hang on while he took a kid for a much-needed wee; a couple playing guitar in the park where it all happened; and two women talking about how to cook roast potatoes for family this week.

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