Confidence in Restaurant Club

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 19

Confidence in Restaurant Club

The Christchurch Restaurant Club, which was launched last month, is confidently on its way to reaching its goal of 6000 members. Applications for membership may have slackened slightly during the past fortnight because many people were away during the school holidays, says the chairman and spokesman for the Restaurant Club, Mr Denes Cserepanyi. He says he is confident, however, that the original figure they were aiming for would be reached by the end of this month. “We started this in Christchurch, and have got a club going run by the restaurants themselves,” Denes said. “With the membership we have accrued, we have already paid for much of our initial advertising, and have given the 20 member restaurants good publicity exposure." Denes visited Auckland last week, where the restaurant association is taking an interest in the success of this venture in Christchurch. Wellington also has indicated its interest in such a club venture.

The New Zealand Restaurant Association will meet in Rotorua next month, where the idea and results of the Christchurch Restaurant Club are expected to be one of the main topics of the agenda.

Speaking about the Christchurch dining-out scene, Denes agrees that it has been growing rapidly during the past few years, but says it is still far behind the number of top restaurants, per capita. in either Auckland or Wellington. “There is no fear within the industry of there being twoo many restaurants in Christchurch yet," Denes said. “We have got a wellbalanced system here at pre-

sent, with none of them threatened by too much competition." In fact, nearly all the restaurants are doing well — even during the quiet, offseason months. The Restaurant Club, which is modelled on similar groups in the United States and Australia, is the brainchild of Denes Cserepanyi. proprietor of the Restaurant Budapest.

The 20 member restaurants are the Allegro. Autolodge, Budapest, Galleon. Guardsman, Kubla Khan, La Dolce Vita. Latimer Lodge. Leinster House, Martinis. Matthews, Mykonos. Paul Revere. Pedros. Portstone. Samuels, Sorbonne, Spratts. Shangri-La and' Town Hall. Many of the restaurants offer discounts on the popular Friday and Saturday nights.

Sticking to the basics last Saturday evening, my partner and I ordered the roast beef, with horseradish sauce ($5.25). and roast pork, with apple sauce ($5). Both were served with a wonderful assortment of pumpkin, mashed and roast potato, broccoli, carrots and Brussel sprouts.

For vegetarians, the Coffee Pot also serves up plates of the same hot vegies or (depending on the night or lunchtime) of other combinations for $4; or a cold salad for $3.50. We had started off with the shrimp cocktail ($2.75) and pate ($2.30). which were not particularly imaginative in their presentation but still served their purpose; and the soup of day turned out to be celery ($1.20). Two warm rolls and butter were served with each meal: the dessert menu, again was conservative, offering a variety of pancakes (about $2.25), hot apple pie ($2.50) and trifle and cream ($2.25). All of this is traditional fare which, I am sure, would have warmed the cockles of J. R. R. Tolkien's heart.