A little kebab van in Melbourne’s south-east has had a win against petrol giant Caltex.
Employees at Glenny Kebabs, situated on the petrol station’s Springvale Road block in Glen Waverley, turned up to work earlier this month and found themselves barricaded out.
“We had everything inside still,” owner Asad Syed said.
“Salads, meat, sauces, everything.”
Caltex claimed that by placing tables and chairs in front of the van and allowing a large number of cars to park there, Glenny Kebabs posed a safety risk. The site, Caltex also argued, isn’t approved for use as a restaurant.
But Mr Syed took Caltex to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last week and won an injunction, which allowed him to re-open.
“I needed to reopen and the main thing was the staff. We’ve got 28 staff who need to work so, until we open, they didn’t have an income,” he said.
His lawyer Mark Sehler, from Armour Legal, said Caltex took over the lease at the site last year, but hadn’t raised any issues until they began issuing breach notices relating to the chairs and parking late this year.
“This is a great win and early Christmas present for Glenny Kebabs.”
Known for its halal snack packs and discounts for students (Mr Syed’s own high school nickname was ‘kebab’ because he ate one every day), Glenny Kebabs developed somewhat of a cult following in the south-east.
“We stepped away from your typical kebab shop experience. We don’t have late night drunks here. We don’t have troublemakers in this area anyhow…the food is obviously exceptional as well,” Mr Syed said.
“We can’t have that vibe here anymore. The atmosphere is what made us, so we’re hoping that’s not what breaks us either,” he said.
And a final decision is still to be made by VCAT as well, in which the tribunal will rule in February on whether Glenny Kebabs is operating under a lease or licence.
His lawyers have argued it operates like a lease, therefore Mr Syed has rights and small business owners like him can’t be shut-out so suddenly.
The well-known Brunswick Town Hall Kebab on Sydney Road, once visited by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, was evicted in September after the land it was parked on was bought by the Anglican church who planned to develop a community space.
Extracted from SMH