By that night Victoria had pulled the plug on dining-in for five days with a statewide snap lockdown.

Saliba said while the break-in was disappointing, lockdown 5.0 was yet another blow for regional Victoria amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He said he had about 600 patrons booked at La Maison Restaurant in Gateway Village over Friday and Saturday services.

"I had 300-plus booked for each day between lunches and dinners," he said.

"Things were starting to look super!

"Albury-Wodonga is feeling the pain with two different sets of rules from two state governments.

"At the end of the day, they're playing with people's lives and businesses."

Saliba said he hosted a market day on Friday and would do the same on Saturday to offload chef-made meals and surplus perishable stock.

"I will be minimising the loss; I won't be covering all of my costs but I'd like to cover the cost of the wages," Saliba said.

Saliba said video footage from Wednesday night showed three children had broken outdoor furniture and played with the power board, tripping the switch for the bar coolroom.

"Luckily it was the drinks coolroom with only a small amount of perishables. It was cold overnight and if we'd been shut for a few days there could have been bigger losses," he said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Goods Shed Craft Beer Cafe in Wodonga offered takeaway menus on Friday in line with the restrictions under lockdown 5.0.

The Goods Shed Craft Beer Cafe business manager Callum McNicol said the venue had opted to remain open for takeaway food and drinks this time.

He said they had about 200 booked for last night's live music before the lockdown was announced on Thursday.

"We encourage people who had booked to re-book for another time and the same goes for people who had booked other local venues," he said.

"We had to cancel our live music for Friday night but we'll reschedule that as soon as we can."

The Goods Shed will offer takeaway food, craft beer, bottles, cans or growlers, cocktails and wine for pickup between 4pm and 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Among La Maison Restaurant's market day offerings will be linguini, paella, beef cheeks, pork belly, confit duck, aromatic chicken, gnocchi, beef ragout, dumplings, haloumi cigars, blue cheese souffle, charcuterie, panna cotta, pudding and baklava.

The market day at the restaurant in Gateway Village will run from 9am on Saturday.

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