Enlarged Merivale restaurant caters for group bookings

Press, 30 November 1978, Page 14

Enlarged Merivale restaurant caters for group bookings

Pat Kerr, the new owner of The Leinster Restaurant, (just around the corner from Merivale Village), feels you cannot have too much of a good thing. He and his wife Jenny have more than doubl d the scope of their popular restaurant by incorporating another large room of Leinster House. The Banquet Hall, as they have called it, is acorss the entrance hall from the smaller restaurant, and was obviously the main drawing-room in this charming old house, built in the early 1900 s. With a seating capacity for 45 people, the Banquet Hall is a pleasantly spacious room with a fireplace surround of local stone. There are floorlength red velvet curtains at the bay window and french doors, and refecto-

ry tables in rimu that have been especially built for the restaurant. Ideal for group bookings, the Banquet Hall can accommodate several table arrangements and there is room for dancing. Opening night was iast Saturday, (elction day), with a

group of 20 members of the Canterbury Music Society staging a medieval evening of eating, drinking and music-making. Pat and Jenny Kerr and their staff collaborated with the society’s committee to produce a suitable menu which included game pie,

pork and syllabub, (a 17th century dessert made with cream and wine). The Leinster Restaurant has always had a large number of regular guests who have set bookings. Early reservations for both restaurants are essential, says Pat Kerr. They already have bookings for 1000 meals be tween now and the end of the year. One group of regulars is the members of the local bridge club, who have their rooms upstairs at Leinster House. The Leinster Restaurant has a 8.Y.0. licence and the imaginative menus are changed daily. Jenny Kerr obtained her cordon bleu qualifications in London, and assists their full-time chef, Nick. Recent kitchen extensions have widened the scope of their culinary activities.