Table Talk

15 October 2004 by
Table Talk

If you like it so much, you can buy the company An Australian hotelier has come up with an ingenious way of simultaneously dealing with complaints and promoting the sale of his hotel. A message at the bottom of menus at the Imperial hotel in York, Western Australia, reads: "Our staff have given up their weekends to work, in an effort to try and make your weekend as pleasant and enjoyable as possible. We apologise if delays occur or mistakes are made. Please respect the persons involved. Applications for waiting positions should be made with speed to the manager, and if you think you can run this hotel better than I can, please address your cheque for $200,000 for a 20-year lease, or $1.2m for the freehold, to the owner, Kevin Lawless, and I wish you the best of luck."

Bent on raising their public popularity A conceptual artist plonked a gigantic pile of bananas in London's Trafalgar Square last Tuesday. The bananas were donated by the Banana Group, an organisation dedicated to raising the profile of Britain's most popular fruit. From 3pm, anyone could walk past and help themselves to the yellow mound. New York artist Doug Fishbone said the work was a sculpture in reverse - and, as the bananas were taken away, the work of art slowly vanished.

Campaign journalists will take either - on a skewer
As the US presidential campaign heats up, the menu at a Washington restaurant has taken on a political flavour. Until the 2 November election, diners at Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill can vote a straight party line with gazpacho, hanger steak and lime curd (that's the Bush menu) or clams with cucumber "linguine", filo-wrapped cod and Boston cream pie (the Kerry bill of fare). Chef Bryan Voltaggio said: "I was lucky, from a creative point of view. The opponents come from two very different regions." So which menu is selling better? Voltaggio diplomatically dodged the question, adding that diners could mix and match dishes from the two menus. OK, so which menu would he vote for? "I like the South-western flavours from the Bush menu," he said, "but I'm also partial to seafood." Talk about sitting on the fence…

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking