Beechworth Indian Restaurant closes doors after seven years

The eatery, which has occupied the historic Warden's Hotel for seven years, will have its last hurrah this Saturday.

The restaurant's fate was sealed when the hotel was auctioned on September 16 and buyer Nathan Cowan, who owns brewery and distillery business Bilson's, launched plans to restore the building to its former glory.

What was good news for lovers of heritage was not so good for Shabbir Hussain and his wife Asra who leased the hotel to run their popular restaurant.

But lovers of Indian food need not lose hope; the couple, who forged a strong association with the community, have not ruled out plans to open a new restaurant in Beechworth next year.

Mr Hussain said there were two variables in the equation for a new start.

"My daughter who lives here in Beechworth at the moment is moving to Melbourne to study and my son who already lives there is getting married next year, after that, we'll just have to wait and see," he said.

"We're moving into my son's place in Melbourne - then after that we're not sure what we're going to do.

"Perhaps we'll either open a restaurant in Melbourne or come back to Beechworth and open one here again."

The couple moved to Beechworth in 2012 and opened their restaurant three years later.

They said in the years since then they had made many friendships in town and also endured the hardships caused by COVID lockdowns.

"We've had so many birthday celebrations, Christmas parties and family get togethers - it's just been so warm," he said.

"The biggest night we ever had was probably the first birthday of the restaurant when we had a buffet. It was a huge party, but we've had many others, for example the Indian holy festival."

Mrs Hussain said leaving Beechworth was like leaving a family.

"Beechworth is like a small family, you know everyone and they know what everyone is doing," she said. "Some people you know by face, some you know by name, but regardless, there's a real friendliness about this place.

"Over the years we've had many tourists coming in here but mostly it's the local townspeople. We have so many local people coming in here.

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"During COVID everyone was complaining about no social gatherings and some places went out of business

"We survived by doing takeaway - we never did deliveries, people would come here wearing their masks and pick up their food."

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