In the early afternoon on Tuesday, Doveton Street was eerily quiet with a number of popular spots shut. However, Armstrong Street was a hive of activity with The Forge, 1816 Bakehouse, and Zambreros amongst the venues experiencing solid trade.

Campana's, the third-generation family business, was open from 10am until 5pm.

Meg Campana, who proudly assists in the management of the food and liquor institution, was adamant about operating on one of the biggest days in the state's sporting calendar.

"We're always open on Melbourne Cup," Ms Campana said. "It's not a normal Tuesday, but it's worth being open for sure. There's no point closing on Tuesday and opening on Wednesday when you own a retail store in food."

Ms Campana was happy with the day's flow of customers.

"It's been good," she said. "(We have sold) lots of coffees this morning (and) lots of smallgoods, vino, and beer for people to celebrate the Cup at home or celebrate a day off at home."

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The City Oval Hotel, on the corner of Pleasant and Mair Streets, remained closed.

After a challenging period, publican Robert Gayton decided to rest and recuperate as a result of exhaustion. That said, he remains unconvinced about the public holiday on the first Tuesday in November.

"Melbourne Cup has never been a busy day for us," Mr Gayton said. "(Along with penalty) rates, it is not viable."

Jodie Gillett, Commerce Ballarat CEO, acknowledged businesses have been asking for the Melbourne Cup holiday, as opposed to the traditional Ballarat Show holiday, for years, but also admitted public holidays were costly for employers.

The Ballarat mayor, Daniel Moloney, indicated it was too early to judge the success of the public holiday.

"(Tuesday was) the first time since the council resolved the public holiday will be Melbourne Cup Day for this four-year term," Cr Moloney said. "It was a response to business' call for the public holiday to align with Melbourne."

Cr Moloney believed more needed to be done to develop the day on Ballarat's calendar.

"We will do more work with businesses next year on how we maximise the Melbourne visitation to Ballarat," he said. "We probably haven't maximised as much as we could this time around with everyone being in recovery mode and businesses struggling to get staff in place to meet the requirements of vaccination and other restrictions. Hopefully, that is a thing of the past and we will be able to fully take advantage of Melburnians escaping for four days next year."

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