SAVOY RESTAURANT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21148, 4 October 1930, Page 20

SAVOY RESTAURANT.

VARIETY. TASTE. AND BEAUTY. VALUABLE CIVIC POSSESSION. How many people see in the Savoy, with its Tudor Hall, Warwick Room, and Somerset Lounge, something apart from the strictly commercial routine of supplying Dunedin with food? Is it regarded,' -as it should be, as one of the most satisfying ornaments the city possesses—an asset of which the most arresting effects are beauty, artistic atmosphere, and restfulness ? One man, wherever he goes, sees all that there is to be seen, and carries away with him a rich treasure of impressions, while another, with eyes no less physically keen, ploughs a hurried and lonely furrow through the same surroundings, blind in spirit to all about him. This strange fact, it may be suggested, finds ample demonstration in the attitude of the general public to the Savoy. It is not, in the case of these palatial and beautifully appointed premises, that the one sees what is not there, but that the other does not see what is there. To have eyes is no guarantee of sight. Preoccupation and habit probably dim countless views.

In the long run there is no screen so impenetrable as the slowly thickening veil drawn by familiarity across sights which once touched the springs of interest, wonder, and delight. The infinite voriety, tasteful arrangement, and softly beautiful surroundings of the Savoy have to many of ua become a commonplace unable to excite In us one tithe of the rapture which we find in visitors from other centres or other countries. In such times aa these many of ub are necessarily top busy making a living to take time to live. We carry on with our lawful and mercenary occasions and forget that it has been written that man does not live by bread alone. Were it not that “ the world is, too much with us, late and -soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,” we would, with Wordsworth, "have glimpses that make us less forlorn.” We might find in the Tudor Hall a glimpse of beauty, an impression of artistry that is seldom associated with an ordinary everyday eating house.. Here is a place that has captured beauty and given it form and permanence which are offered to everyone. , Modern man needs such a place of refuge from the daily hurly-burly, a spiritual or artistic shell into which he can retire and rest apart, refreshing himself not only by the consumption of those things that bodily sustenance debut also by the contemplation of the things of beauty that are "a joy for ever.”

For all classes and ages there should be pleasure and relaxation in such surroundings. Those who are no longer young should find there endless appeal and pleasure and comfort. Perhaps youth cares not so much for these things. Youth is always in such a hurry to get on to the next thing that it never stops to savour the present. Youth thinks in spring of the joys of the summer that is coming. But for older people who flnd_ their kittens always suddenly turning into cats, their children rushing into manhood and womanhood, their spring and summer indecently quick to be gone, the tyranny of things eternally material must pall. To them such a serene retreat is a joy indeed. The rest and charm and loveliness of such a wonderful compound of artistry and taste is outside time. And yet on everyone the effect should be the same. Here in the midst of such beauty all may learn from the humblest things in life—the flowers in the vases, the food upon the table—that they and all things fair are outside time, above time. Merely by enjoying to the full that which is here offered us to enjoy we may store our 'memories with happiness that will last as long as we last, and which will soften the glare and bustle and noise of modern life. The Savoy accomplishes a utilitarian object in providing refreshment and entertainment, and accomplishes it with distinction, but at the same time It has a higher and better purpose. It essays to bring colour and beauty into common workaday life, and that it achieves this aim in the same exemplary manner in which it caters for public, is proved by the admiring attention it receives from scores and scores of visitors from many parts, not a few of whom have left Dunedin with the conviction that the most vivid recollection of their visit has been their enjoyment of the Savoy restaurant.