Brisbane Italian Restaurant Beccofino Robbed Amid Coronavirus Crisis

Teneriffe Italian favourite Beccofino has been the victim of a late-night burglary. Three thieves were captured on CCTV raiding the restaurant’s car-park coldroom at 11pm on Monday. They stole cryo-vaced meat, pasta, cheese, small goods and alcohol, co-owner Cordell Khoury says.

Beccofino kitchen staff found the coldroom padlock broken on Tuesday morning. “I raced over. A whole bunch of stuff had been taken,” Khoury says.

Khoury doesn’t think the burglars were looters, despite the incident taking place against the background of the escalating Covid-19 crisis.

“It’s just some bad dudes,” he says. “I’d say they’re restaurant people, given the stuff they took. What struck everyone who saw the video was how they kept shutting the coldroom door behind them. The only people who do that are chefs. As a chef, from day one you get screamed at to shut the fucking coldroom door. No one else would do that; you’re in a rush. They even shut the door at the end, before they left.”

Khoury received a tip-off about the burglars’ identities after posting stills of the CCTV footage to Instagram , which he has since passed on to police.

Otherwise, Beccofino continues to operate as normal following this morning’s federal government announcement banning indoor gatherings of more than 100 people – although he says the restaurant has been doing a “tonne of takeaway”.

“We’re doing our best to stay open as long as we can and keep our staff in work,” he says. “We’re being as careful as we can, washing the skin off our hands.

“We’re following the guidelines from the government. Our capacity is about 90 seats and only 60 of those are inside. But those guidelines could easily change at any time.”