hotsnack: couples banned from restaurants on valentine's day!
As I've mentioned before, Valentine's Day is not the industry's favorite holiday. Today's New Zealand Herald (or tomorrow's actually as it is already Thursday down under) reports Tetsuya's and a few other restaurants in New Zealand and Australia have decided to combat couples and ban them from their restaurants on the 14th. I doubt that would work here, though it is an interesting strategy and a different story angle from the usual holiday fare.
A top Sydney restaurant, Tetsuya's, has refused to take bookings for tables for two tonight and will instead seat couples with at least four strangers.
Another reportedly considered a "couples ban".
Restaurateurs complain of a 30 per cent drop in takings because love-lorn couples stay for hours, drinking just a single bottle of wine or Champagne.
In Auckland, one of the country's top chefs, Simon Gault, sympathises with his Sydney counterparts.
"Valentine's Day is something restaurants have to deal with - it's like customers being late and customers being early," said Gault, executive chef at several leading eateries, including Euro on Princes Wharf.
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