TWO COURSES FOR 4D.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 184, 7 August 1933, Page 7

TWO COURSES FOR 4D.

MELBOURNE HOTEL BARS.

" UNFAIR ADVANTAGE."

A tasty Bay flounder for 6d—witli oyster eauce, 9d,

A dozen Stewart Island oysters—or, if you prefer them, Sydney Rocks for the same price. A bacon omelette or a rump steak for 9d.

Snapper for 4d,

Tomato soup or consomme for Id

The bar of a Collins Street, Melbourne, hotel offers you these delicacies at something less than what the racecouises and. showground caterer knows as "city prices." In Bourke Street, and other city thoroughfares, you can fare further and equally well, with a changing menu and diminishing prices. There are roast lamb and beef, with vegetables, for 3d; a wide range of beef steak pudding, Murrumbidgee (sea pie), and braised steak, at 2d, and the list goes down to the modest sandwich, sausage roll and frankfurt for Id.

You can have a good two-course meal foj: a modest 4d.

Depression Revival.

There was* a time when the counter lunch was an essential part of the hotel bar's attractions. Licensees vied with each other in the free provender distributed to their patrons. Whole joints and hams and other appetising dishes were provided, and the bar counters literally groaned with good things. But the golden era of the counter lunch seemed to have passed, with many other things, in the war (says the Melbourne "Herald").

In recent years there has been a revival, due principally to the depression and the need to attract trade. The Licensed Victuallers' Association's attitude to this revival was that it was unfair competition. A clause was inserted in the agreements signed, by licensees, in which they undertook not to distribute free food nor to sell any without a reasonable margin of profit.

The association lias now issued a fresh appeal to licensees. The secretary said, that if liotelkeepers put on free counter lunch, they secured an unfair advantage. If all did it, it simply added generally to overhead expenses. Either way, it was not in the interests of members. The objection was not to the counter lunch being sold in cityhotels, if the price charged covered the cost to the licensee. It was to free distribution. The provision of free biscuits and cheese seemed to be the principal breach of the agreement.