Tough economy forces popular Hunter restaurant to close

Rodriguez, who has operated his own Emerson's restaurant on Lovedale Road at the Adina Estate property, announced on Wednesday night he was closing the business after the final lunch service on Sunday, January 14.

Rodriguez has been working the pans for 30 years, including stints running Hunter Valley hospitality venues for Peppers and the last 13-and-half-years in his own business.

Rodriguez attended Francis Greenway High School at Beresfield and completed his apprenticeship at a seafood restaurant at Broadmeadow. He worked for Peppers Group for six years and was executive chef at Peppers Guest House, Peppers Convent and Hope Estate Winery.

"Hunter Valley is a tourism area," he said in an interview on Thursday. "Eighty-five per cent of my business is tourism. There's just not enough tourism at the moment."

Even with the busy summer season from Christmas through to the start of the school year at end of January, Rodriguez said business is down 40 per cent.

Rodriguez pointed straight at rising interest rates as the biggest factor affecting his business. Coming out of the disastrous COVID years, the interest rate hikes hit the hip pockets of the Sydney visitors who are the backbone of the Hunter Valley tourism trade: a weekend away, with accommodation, food and entertainment, went by the wayside to pay increased mortgages.

"I could keep going over there for the next 18 months, but I don't know what the interest rate is doing," he said. "So I'm not prepared to make money next week and the next seven weeks we lose money. One step forward, 10 steps back. I think it's the right decision."

With a track record of success, and the constant competition of what he says are "75 restaurants within a five-kilometre radius" of his front door, Rodriguez has a reliable barometer of trading expectations.

He's been working alone in the kitchen over the last 12 months, putting in 70 hours a week, with four staff in the front of house, including a restaurant manager. Emerson's seats 70, split between inside seating and an outdoor verandah, and serves lunch five days a week and dinner three nights a week, with its weekend breakfasts a popular drawcard.

A keen fisherman himself, he established a keen reputation for special seafood dishes at Emerson's.

He also makes his own hand-crafted ceramic crockery, another unique trademark at his restaurant.

"To tell you the truth, it's hard to do it on your own because I do everything," he said.

Rodriguez, 45, lives in Fletcher. He said he plans to remain in the hospitality industry in Newcastle.

The final service will be lunch on Sunday, January 14.