BORDER restaurants and cafes are dealing with mass cancellations during their normally busiest trading week of the year amid the chaotic border closure 2.0.
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Wodonga restaurants Victor Supper Club and La Maison Restaurant have been hardest hit at the centre of a border checkpoint set up in Gateway Village early on Monday morning.
With cars lined up to the Albury Botanic Gardens to go through the checkpoint on Monday night, NSW diners face lengthy delays to reach Gateway Village.
Victor Supper Club owner Carlos Saliba said to add insult to injury, Wodonga residents could no longer access Gateway Village from the Lincoln Causeway traffic lights under the changed traffic conditions.
"Currently Wodonga residents can't turn into Victor's from the causeway; they need to travel to Albury to turn around and then join the queue to get through the checkpoint," he said.
"If you're in a Victorian car, you have to make a U-turn in Albury to eat at the Victorian restaurant you just passed."
Mr Saliba said they had lost about 50 bookings on Monday from Border residents concerned about the checkpoint.
"We're losing bookings by the minute," Mr Saliba said.
"This border closure has taken it to the next level; it's right on our doorstep.
"We understand why they're doing it; it's not the first time and it won't be the last.
"But we have to suffer through all of this and at least 90 per cent of the traffic is local residents just going from A to B.
"We're stocked up with food to navigate through until mid-January but if this is going to go on for 10 days, there's not much point opening."
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Albury-based Indian Tandoori Restaurant owner Manraj Bhullar said they had up to 40 cancellations on Monday.
Mr Bhullar said the two-week period from Monday had been their peak season going back 22 years.
"We have stocked up with lamb and beef to get through our busiest two weeks of the year," he said.
"We consistently have good trade, especially in the week after Christmas, but now it's so uncertain we don't know what will happen.
"The impact of the border closure was immediate, the same as it was the first time from July 8 to November 23.
"It feels like we're back to square one."
La Maison Restaurant co-owner Wassim Saliba said the Gateway Village checkpoint had isolated diners on both sides of the border.
He said cancellations had started to roll in on Monday afternoon.
"We're not half-screwed this time, we're fully screwed," he said.
