DINING OUT

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13092, 13 February 1937, Page 9

DINING OUT

I £6OOO A NIGHT SPENT ON DINNERS. i ! ATTENDANTS WHO PAY £iOOO A YEAR lOR THEIR .JOBS! V 0 one knows what London -.rill he liko «;von in ilie onrlv months of Ibis year. The Coronation is-the one ! unpredictable factor in West End cal-

culations. Every night nor/, though, there are about 6000 diners spending ; an average of £T each in the smart i H pper Four Hundred” restaurants. London lias become almost as well stocked with first-class restaurants as Paris. | Let us take the case of one or the | Wust End’-s most fashionable res- • tan ran is. which hopes to have a turnI over of £IOO,OOO between October and I Ere middle of January. ’The head of , it said:— I “c-inee the. Court woni out of : • 'aiming on October 21 business has improved by 25 per cent. One day i 1• "n weep I had 1100 people in to i'-nrh and dine. Dinner starts at 7 , Rut. fi-nd we go on until 2 a.m. You j ran say that we take about .£IOOO a : day. That looks a lot, hut there .is ; another rude —a picture of heavy expenses. ; “I pay £250 a. weep to my hand end cabaret. My staff numbers 450. Ibe weekly wage bill is £IOOO On iop or that, a good waiter can earn ; about. £0 in £7 n. week in tips. The j organisation of the waiting svstem, j incidentally, is interesting. There is • » head waiter to every seven or eight tables. Tie wears a black tie to his 1 Nils.

"A. chief waiter has four tables: he vtm-s a. white tie. Then there is the beginner, generally a ynung man, who wears a white apron, and waits upon the chief waiter. "All tips go into n. communal fund called the trouc. which is shared out every so often. Many of the waiters here drive to work in their own cars, and even page-boys own motor-cycles. Further expenses include the laundry bill, which comes to about £l5O a week. Crockery and glass breakaces come to £25. Freeh dowers every day account for £4O o week. . ‘A fresh-air conditioning apparatus costs £IB,OOO to install and runs away with £7 a. day-upkeep. Electricity costs £250 a month ; I spend £IOOO a year on clothes for the uniformed staff. Then there arc* the decorations, which are constantly in hand to keen the restaurants bright and modern. ®o far this year 1 have spent. £14.OOt! on decorations alone. Twice a year I send my chef to the Continent, to study the latest foods and cocktail blends ; my new chef lias a salarv jf £2OOO a year.”

Tho tipping system runs away with a good deal of money in n West End restaurant. An average tip to n waiter in n smart restaurant, may bo anything from to Ids. depending on the size of the bill. Ten per cent, is enough. tin top of this there is the tip to the cloakroom attendant. One man, a member of a smart supper crowd, calculated that it costs him about £2O a year to redeem his silk hat from cloakrooms.

The three cloakroom attendants r.r one West End Hotel pay £IOOO a realtor the privilege of bolding tho job. and they live quite comfortably on the surplus.

i To bo successful in the restaurant 1 business, you need to have had at least twenty years’ experience of the | \V est End—even if only to be able to sort out tho best from the rest. A successful restaurateur needs t<> know who is most likely to give a. “dud” cheque, and who is likely to be a. credit to his restaurant or not. On tho other hand, you have the sad experience of the manager of one fashionable! restaurant. ‘‘A man came in here the other day with a young woman.” lie said, “sat clown and ordered dinner. “It was an expensive dinner, with wines, cigarettes, cigars, and liqueurs. At the end he gave me a cheque. ‘■What, could I do? Wliat could anyone do? T knew that, cheque was coming track; in fact,'it came lack this morning. “Here, i allow £IOO a year for losses on kind’ cheques.” ATany asniring managers pay a. “head tax” to smart society women, who are hired to increase the smartness and numbers of tho clientele. Some of thorn are paid a shilling a guest a meal. That does not sound much a first, but- it. makes a substantial total.