Restaurant fails in bid for liquor licence

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 9

Restaurant fails in bid for liquor licence

The Licensing Control Commission has rejected an application by the Christchurch restaurant, the Cask and Cleaver, for a licence to sell liquor on the ground that it would require a departure from commission standards “to an unprecedented degree.”

The director of Lichfield Restaurants, Ltd, which owns the Cask and Cleaver, Mr Warren Barnes, said that the applicant sought a dispensation for the commission’s minimum standards for food and entertainment licences in respect of waitress-steward service and floor coverings.

Its case was based on the unique nature of the restaurant, which is styled on a New Zealand barn of the last century. It has floors of bare wood, a false ceiling of

rust corrugated iron, and is decorated with rural memorabilia.

Patrons An choose and cook their own meat at a barbecue and then help themselves to vegetables and sweets at a separate self-servery. The restaurant has been working on a “bring your own” permit for more than 18 months and recently concluded plans to expand its service by leasing space under the existing business. In its decision, the commission said it accepted that the present business attracted substantial patronage and that the proposed extension would probably do likewise but it was not prepared to approve the departure from its standards and the application was refused.