“DINNER CRASHERS.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 176, 27 June 1932, Page 9

“DINNER CRASHERS.”

LONDON RESTAURANTS. West End (London) restaurants have declared war on “Dinner Crashers.” Men and women dining in wellknown restaurants, hotels and night clubs have been signing bills which after the meal they refuse to pay. The trouble began with the borrowing of the idea which Parisians adopted to popularise new restaurants and cabarets by establishing a free list for social butterflies. The West End proprietors particularly invited bright young people and similar decorative customers who were expected to attract smaller fry. Eventually the free-list patrons abused their invitations and refused to take the hint when the maitre d’hotel presented the bill for cocktails and dinner wines. The proprietors of the restaurants are combining in self-defence, forming a black list, suing offenders, and limiting the free dinner credit to £ls. ()ne well-known establishment has outstanding dinner bills of £3OOO, of which only £l5O is realisable. Hotel habitues, trading on the belief that their presence is a good advertisement, include a nobleman who ran up a bill for £ICO for himself and three servants and departed without paying. ... . . Bar crashing is also developing. Two men and a woman tried to sign a chit for £32 worth of drinks.