Bigger patronage caps and group stays will be the changes tourism towns seek in a fortnight's time, following Victoria's emergence from lockdown five.
Glenbosch Wine Estate owners Nika and Dirk Bester were setting tables on July 15 ahead of their first day as returned restaurant managers when the state was put into lockdown.
They are now preparing to open on Friday.
"We're excited to see everyone again," Mrs Bester said.
"Fifty per cent of our business is tourists, so we're very happy to have at least the Melbourne market back.
"I did have a cancellation because they can't stay together - a lot of families book a big house and come here, and they're not allowed to do that.
"But I hope in two weeks that will change."
The Besters, moving from South Africa, bought the estate two years ago and leased the restaurant while they started a family last year.
"We made the hard decision to take it back," Mrs Bester said.
"Scott Bowerman's food is really yummy - he is a modern Australian chef, and we gave him a challenge to cook with some South Africans spices.
"He's doing a great job, so I can't wait for people to taste and see his food.
"With the four-per-square-metre rule, we can only have 50 people in here.
"We're lucky we can still have a good amount."
In town, Project 49 has remained open for lockdown takeaway for a fifth time.
Owner Lisa Pidutti said morale was down in this latest lockdown and was glad to get back to some normality.
"A lot less shops were open and there's not really any great backing for financial support from the government, so it's a big risk to stay open," she said.
"For us, we just found that the continuity was important ... the main reason we stayed open was to make sure that we had a service available to the locals.
"We're very excited lockdown is lifting; it will be really good for the locals to be able to come back and the tourists especially."
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With uncertainty around future ease of cross-border travel, Ms Pidutti said it was important Southern NSW could travel into regional Victoria.
"Having that movement and customers within the bubble is really important, because a lot of them travel here regularly, supporting all of our small regional businesses," she said.
