Beechworth's Rustique Soul Cafe may shut again in second lockdown

Paula Rangi has operated Rustique Soul Cafe in Ford Street for the past two years and has hit breaking point.

She decided to close the doors during the first stage of COVID-19 lockdowns in March and didn't reopen until June 6.

A rush of customers followed and gave Mrs Rangi hope she'd worn out the worst of the pandemic, only to be rocked by the closure of the border by the NSW government.

Mrs Rangi had one of her three other staff members resign for family reasons, while another is a university student in Albury and wasn't permitted to leave the border blue zone, which doesn't include Beechworth, to continue working.

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She soldiered on with one worker by her side before stage three restrictions implemented earlier this week by the Victorian government dragged the cafe back to square one.

Mrs Rangi will operate takeaway only across the weekend before deciding if it's worth staying open.

"If today (Friday) is anything to go by, this won't even pay the electricity and it's not worth opening the doors," she said.

"I'm better off to do what I did last time which was rest and plan what we're going to do when it opens."

Another victim of the new border closure measures is Sommers Carpet Xtra manager Duane Washington.

The Yackandandah resident had an exemption to travel to Albury for work as he was deemed essential to the running of the business.

However, Mr Washington arrived at a Border checkpoint at 8am yesterday to be told by police his permit was no longer valid.

He later found emails sent to him and his wife minutes before midnight on Thursday about the exclusion.

"The police (at the checkpoint) were good, but said my permit was expired and I couldn't apply for a new one until Monday 4pm," he said.

"I've also been told I won't qualify anyway because I live in Yackandandah. That's my downfall."

Mr Washington may consider the drastic measure of staying in a Albury hotel to run his business, given it can't be done remotely.