Bucking that trend is Darby Street, Cooks Hill, where trading is daily life.

Yesterday that changed.

At breakfast institution Goldbergs Coffee House, open from 7am to midnight for the best part of three decades, owner Luke Davico was closing his doors indefinitely after 12 years.

"In the last week, day, hour it's grown exponentially, it's scary stuff," he said.

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As many restaurants make a valid attempt to tweak operations to serve takeaways and deliveries, as per the updated government health restrictions, he said it was not viable for Goldbergs.

"We are shutting down completely and like everyone else we will play it by ear," the former Knights player said. "It's unprecedented times and uncharted waters."

Mr Davico said business had started to quieten off after Christmas but when the coronavirus began to emerge, the drop in trade became drastic.

With 50 staff, he is trying to help them stay positive, organising working bees. Many are heading to Centrelink.

"I've told them we can control what we can control, everything else is out of our control. It's important to help one another," he said. "The one positive is that I can give Goldies a much better lick and a promise, do odd jobs and make sure maintenance is up to speed and so when we do open it will be spick and span. It's not the end. Who knows how long it will be."

Nearby, Three Monkeys on Sunday shut "until further notice".

"We have decided to put the health and safety of our beautiful customers and employees first," owners Anthony and Nic Strachan said on their social media channels.

Next door, The Autumn Rooms owner Ben Richardson was on Monday working with partner Becci Fowler to finesse an online business model for takeaways and deliveries. "It is really challenging, hard to plan because it keeps changing," said Mr Richardson, who runs The Tea Collective upstairs.

With 23 staff, trade fell by a third last week. With restricted trading, it will likely slump by 80 per cent.

"We are trying to keep the engine running. If we can get this to work and this keeps our business alive, if the government can help us, we can ... continue to employ people and when we we fire back up we can employ another 20 again and it kicks off."

Mr Richardson said customers had been supportive, his staff selfless: "Some have said, "I'll give my hours to whoever needs it most'."

If forced to shut, the risk is extended closure: "We would then be almost back to square one because we spent three years building a team. Our business is our staff."

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