One of those venues readying the taps is Picabar in the Northbridge cultural centre, which will open its doors at 6pm tonight.

Picabar owner Brian Buckley said said the beers would be pouring at “6 o’clock and one second”.

In any normal Friday in February, with Fringe in full swing and the city rammed with people enjoying the warm nights, Picabar would be doing a roaring trade with a capacity of 481 people.

Mr Buckley said he was slightly disappointed the government didn’t allow for a few more punters, but they would suck it up for the week.

“I would’ve liked to have seen a 2-square-metre rule but it’s only a week,” he said.

“We’re just going to open as we normally do as if nothing’s different, we just have less people and they’ve got to be sitting down and wear a mask.”

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Andy Freeman, the brains behind venues such as Hadiqa and The Flour Factory, said while they wouldn’t turn a profit under the new restrictions, they did adopt some of the processes from last year’s lockdown.

“There is no way we can make money with these sort of numbers but we are paying our salary staff and everyone anyway so let’s just open and try and maximise it, pay a bit of rent, pay a bit of wages and get the guys engaged back in the business,” he said.

“We do have a history ... we’ve got the table plans, the kitchens know what to expect with set menus so we can try and minimise waste and maximise turnover, because if you’ve only got 30 people in a venue that holds 120 it’s not many, we need to maximise the dollars per person to cover the rent and wages.”

The state’s biggest pub – The Camfield, with a 2500-person capacity – will be hardest-hit by the patron cap but owner Tim McLernon told 6PR said they would open anyway in the spirit of getting people back into pubs.

“We understand its only five days so we are happy to follow those guidelines and take a little bit more pain in the five or six days in the hope that from next Sunday we get back to normal and we can run the businesses normally from there,” he said.

People face a $1000 fine from police if they flout the new restrictions, but all three owners said they didn’t expect there to be many issues with compliance.

Some Perth cafes are more restricted by the post-lockdown rules because of their smaller trading areas.

Abdul Belhassan owns several cafes, including the popular 2nd Deli on Beaufort Street.

He has decided to keep his cafes in a takeaway-only format for the next week because the 4-square-metre rule made dine-in service unviable.

Australian Hotels Association WA chief executive Bradley Woods said venues welcomed the opportunity to open on Friday but it was critical the restrictions were lifted as soon as possible to recoup the sector’s losses of up to $10 million over the past five days.

“Hospitality businesses have COVID-safe plans, mandated contact tracing and comprehensive staff training in place, making them more prepared than ever to provide safe venues for patrons and workers,” he said.

“In order to restore confidence in the sector and safeguard jobs, we need to return to pre-lockdown conditions as soon as it is safe to do so.”

On Friday, the WA government announced a $500 credit for small businesses and charities impacted by the lockdown.

Mr Woods said it was a kind gesture but would be little help to venues which had lost tens of thousands of dollars.