Natasha Walmsley said the intention had been to replace the chef who left at the beginning of the year, but when it became obvious attracting a replacement for a reasonable price would be too difficult, she said a hard call had to be made.

The space will be getting used though, with a new plan for the facility already in place.

"We had been advertising trying to get another restaurant chef, but we just can't find anybody," she said.

"Everyone else is having the same problem in town, so we eventually decided because it's far too difficult, that we're not going to open it as a restaurant, we're just going to open it as a function centre.

"We actually have a function centre on the other side of the restaurant, so we're just going to modify the dining room to create a space to have parties and things like that."

She said the restaurant had already been struggling, with different managers and operators unable to turn the ship around in recent years, and it would have been a gamble to open it up without the assurance of customers coming back.

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COVID really interrupted momentum for the business, she said, with the restaurant actually developing a bit of a following just before the virus hit Australian shores.

Unfortunately after that happened, Ms Walmsley said there just wasn't enough confidence from people to return, and it didn't have the reputation of other venues which were able to get through the worst of things.

"Since COVID it's just been so hard because every time you have a lockdown you've got so much wastage, you've got food that gets wasted, you've got drinks going out of date, and you're having to put staff off," she said.

"And then the customers, even when you do reopen a lot of them are too scared to come back because of COVID."

She believes the style of restaurant that Connors by Coreys was is also becoming outdated, with many people either favouring the fine dining experience or more basic meals from pubs or food trucks.

It's an unfortunate end to a restaurant that has been around for decades, but has struggled for much of its existence according to Ms Walmsley.

She believes it will be well utilised as a function centre though, and expects it to be up and running in that capacity at some stage in February. When COVID restrictions are taken away, she said it will be able to fit around 150 people.

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