Revellers roaming the streets for a late-night Turkish treat would likely have gone home hungry up until the last few weeks, as late-night traders waited out next weekend's return of Mooseheads Nightclub.
Maria Nowroozi took over the kebab shop in the Sydney Building in December last year - in the time it took to get up and running Canberra was in lockdown.
As the rest of the city slowly woke up after the forced closures, the late-night traders reliant on lining the stomachs of the nightclub crowd remained in a slumber.
"This side of the Sydney building there's no crowd, there's nothing really except Mooseheads," Ms Nowroozi said.
"There's nothing worse than no customers, we'd be just standing still and doing nothing all day."
From mid-May until mid-August they reduced their weekend closing time from 3am to 10pm as the long days were barely bringing in $400.
"Every single day when we opened the shop and we saw Mooseheads people out the back we were asking, 'When you guys opening? When you guys opening'? Every day."
She said their landlord rejected their request for reduced rent and government support wasn't available because they'd had the business less than 12 months.
When it was made public on Wednesday Mooseheads would open its doors from September 24, Ms Nowroozi was finally able to call staff and suppliers to let them know they, too, had a pay cheque on the way.
In keeping with social-distancing requirements, Mooseheads will operate under the one-person-per-four-square-metres rule, there will be no standing around drinking and dancing is off the cards until restrictions were further eased.
A new system DJs probably hope outlives the pandemic will require customers use an app to request songs rather than rushing the DJ booth.
Akki B rents two retail spaces below Mooseheads from the nightclub's owners.
Bar and grill franchise, Outback Jack's, has put food in the bellies of its landlords' customers for almost three years and the grocery store next door opened in December to ply them with supplies.
While business at the franchise has gradually been picking up since restrictions eased in May, the grocery store has stayed shut since March.
"We tried opening it during the day but we hardly get any customers towards that side of the city during the day. The main customers we had were people going out at night, to Mooseheads basically," Mr B said.
Mr B said since learning it would be back up and running, he had spent the latter part of the week contacting suppliers and renewing liquor licences to prepare for a Sydney Building reboot.
"We still don't know how many will come because as far as I know only 40 people are allowed but Moose management told me they needed at least 300-400 to operate the business. But still, something is better than nothing," he said.
"We are just expecting things to be back the way they were so we can march onwards."
Small business ombudsman Kate Carnell said it had always been difficult to bring life to Canberra's CBD, with high rental prices deterring business owners around the Sydney and Melbourne buildings.
Ms Carnell said it wasn't as simple as subsiding rents as that could reduce the business's value and subsequently limit its borrowing power.
She said it was time for all public departments to allow employees back to their city offices.
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"I think it's probably not 'working from home if you can' it should be 'only working from home if you must'," she said.
Ms Carnell said knock-off drinks were much more likely if public servants were working together in the city.
"Hopefully they'll have a few drinks and go on to restaurants or grab a kebab and go to Mooseheads like they used to," she said.
Mooseheads' management were contacted for this article but did not wish to comment.
