"EATS"—UNLIMITED.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 212, 6 September 1924, Page 25

"EATS"—UNLIMITED.

FEEDING LONDON. ■RISE OF THE TEASHOF. EQUALITY OF THE SEXES. (By FJIM.) It is usual to ask a visitor to thi» vast city not: "How do you like Lqndon?" but: "What strikes you most here?" Some people say the traffic; others, the wonderful police force; but the greater number declare that the provision made for the feeding of an immense moving population impresses them above everything else. Tho growth of This eystem of restaurant and teashop is of comparatively recent date, and comes as a boon and a blessing to women. Men always had places where they could eat—chop.houses,' coffeehouses, and taverns, dirty and i ill-kept doubtless, but providing food and drink : of a kind. The eighteenth century had the coffee-houses; later came the coffeeshop; and now'is tho day of the teaishop, lounge, and restaurant. I can easily remember a time when it was apparently the general opinion that a woman should have her meals in her own home. Coffee-shops did not cater tor her, nor would she dare to enter a v placc so sacred to the sterner sex. She might, perhaps, if fortunate, or persistent enough, find a pastrycook's shop, where she could be "obliged" in a little back room. But there would • be no announcement of tea in the window, and no suggestion of it on the counter. To-day, in every part of London, there are dainty at d well-run establishments, offering not -only tea a_all hours, but a substantial 2_nd varied menu. To the thousands of working girls who have to spend tlielTay away from home, and the crowds of women who flock in daily to the shopping centres, the tea. .. shops and restaurants are as green oases in the dusty desert of town. It is difficult to distinguish between the ordinary .restaurant and the teashop. The dictionary vaguely defines the former as .. 'a place where one eats.*' There are small confectioners' and bakers' where a sweet tea is still the most they can I provide, but all other place 3 have long I and interesting menus, which one can I sample at any. time or season. In the. j vicinity of largt, stations,- breakfasts

are a-waiting the early and presumably hungry traveller arriving before hotels are awake, and after-theatre suppers are a matter of course. Our American "visitors, v.ho coin a language of their own,, call everything in the culinary line "eats.'' .They do not- lunch or'dine, but inquire nasally; "Say, can you inform mc when we eat." ... There is in Brigh« ton, near the front, an obviously American restaurant. Its windows overlook the Assembly Room 3 and State apartments in the Old World gardens so fashionable in Regency days. It is there, .. almost brazen, and rejoices in the name of "Eats, Limited." I preferred to enjoy' my fish or grill in a quiet, very old • -house, with taU chimneys/diamond windows, and a- weather-worn red-tiled roof. On it 3 swinging sign was "Ye Olde Bunne Shop." A little bit of ancient history—and, round the corner, "Eats, Limited." ..-.'.■■ ,'. Exclusiveness and Prices. I take a personal and doubtless selfUb interest in the rise and progress of the cheap catering business, because, living in London as we visitors do, we -look to it for much of our daily- bread. The cheaper boarding-houses, and many quite expensive ones, too, have a rooted objection to providing lunch. One is supposed to go out after breakfast, and •be no more seen till the hour for laoe dinner. How one.fares between times does riot concern the j powers that be. So one—is thrown on -he .tender mer-cies-of London's ...West, End," and a very generous, pleasant, and inexpensive host it < can be. ; .Where we select" to. est: .should depend entirely on the state of our finances, and," Tike the shops, the smallest and most retiring place, are generally the most expensive. One does not, of course, include such ■ place, as the Ritz, Savoy, Cecil, and a host of other caravansarai for the millionaire, the American visitor, or perhaps an oversea premier. Into such palaces we plain folk have no ticket of admission. But a man friend may invite one to lunch in a quiet little restaurant where the tables are all reserved, the menu a French culin/y dream, and the service silent perfection. Next day, in a hurried'rush to head the queue at a mati- . nee, one may dash into a nearby teashop and demand a sausage. .In a suburban eating-place the graven image in charge repeated: "Sausage! Twice - ma-hed." "No," I said with some dignity, "just plain, sausage; even, once mashed would be too.: much." Quite exhausted one day with "window shopping," and inspecting the beautiful things in a well-known shop, I invited my friends to morning tea in its tealounge. We did -justice to the attractive cakes provided, but each toothsome morsel cost mc eightpence in the reckoning. One r buys experience cheerfully, and learns to "say it with a smile." The Huge Lyons Business. .Infancy Sir. Lyons must have been the first enterprising person to start'the teashop and cheap' restaurant in London. That would be about the year 1894. The originator was a member of a family of cigar manufacturers called Gluck- ; stein, and they considered the catering business suggested .by the young man so infra . dig th*t they refused to allow the name to he used, in connection with it. I have been unable to ascertain just how many "Lyons" there are in London alone, but fancy they must-run info thousands, and every week new ones are • being opened. The Corner House, in Piccadilly, opened last year, claims to be the largest restaurant in the world— until America goes one better. It is nine stories high, can easily seat 4500 people, has a staff of 1700, and can provide meals for* 40,000 visitor, in one day. There is a full orchestra-in each of the four huge salons, and 900 waitresses attend to* the customers' wants. Here one can have tea and toast, s dainty lunch for a vulgar "bob," or a : fnany-coursed repast, with hflrs I d'oeuvres, champagne, and liqueurs. The I appointments, service, and music are the same for all. A New Zealand girl! working in London for some years exclaimed with feeling one day: "Mr. Lyons ought to be made a duke, and have a statue -in Westminster Abbey; he has done more for working girls and men than any of the others." She was right in many ways, for the teashop has had much to do with the emancipation of women, and has exercised s great influence towards the sensible and natural intermingling of the sexes. The . girls • share a table with men as natu- < rally, as. they take a.seat or a strap j In tube or tram. i