Jennifer Pittorino
A car smashed through the doors of Footscray’s Moon Dog Brewery in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Police are investigating the incident at the newly-opened premises at the site of the former Franco Cozzo building on Hopkins Street about 1.20am.
Reports said the brewery and restaurant was left with significant damage after a car smashed into the dining area, before a man exited the car and stole a sign from the business before leaving.
Speaking to ABC Radio, Moon Dog Brewery owner Karl van Buuren said cleaners were inside the building at the time of the incident but no one was injured.
“They were upstairs and luckily no one was hurt,” he said.
Despite the trouble, owner Mr van Buuren told 3AW that Moon Dog will be opening tonight.
“So hopefully we can make the place safe for our customers and put up some protection to prevent this from happening again.”
The car ramming is the latest incident in what has been a rocky start to Moon Dogs’ take over of the iconic building.
As reported by Star Weekly, the wild west-themed venue was forced to delay its grand opening on April 17, with guests sent home at the last minute.
After months of back and forth between Moon Dog Craft Brewery and Maribyrnong council, the opening was delayed over a fire hydrant issue which sparked a war of words between the two parties.
At the time, Mr van Buuren said he was forced to make the difficult decision to deny entry to invited guests after Maribyrnong council notified him that the fire hydrant booster assembly was unsuitable.
However, council chief executive Celia Haddock said the decision to not issue an occupancy certificate wasn’t made by council.
“This matter is between Moon Dog and their private building surveyor,” she said.
The was eventually held on Friday, April 26.
