THE RISE OF MONSIEUR BON VIVEUR
WELLINGTON RESTAURANTS THAT WERE
(By "Wi.")
A man in his time plays many parts —and oats many dinners. Man, say tho Austere, eats that lie may livo. Ho does not—should not, that is to say— livo that lie may cat, lost he be numbered -with the Porci. This also is said by tho Austere, and for these things I say to them —Go to! The English have elevated this necessity to an art, enhanced it with purple ceremonial, and fortified it with impressive rites. Ono may not eat peas with one's knife, nor yet drink tea from one's saucer. Now, even as some men are born to greatness while others have it thrust upon thejn, so are some men born to tho banquet, while others, cradled in adversity, graduate by tho fortunes of their circumstances from hashouses to epicurean refinement.
In 1893 w T erc tho days when, for seven-and-sixpence a week, I did errands for a bookshop and lunched from tho contents of a Maori kit and a gingcrbcer bottle. My senior on the staff of tho said bookshop, by effluxion of time and much pleading, had attained to the magnificence of the ten-bob-a-wcek mark, and "dined in'town." I lunched from twelvo till one. He, more dignified, dined from one to two. His name was Horace, but his next in rank, disapproving of the taste of his parents v in tho matter, changed it to Biggins. At one o'clock sharp, Biggins was wont to retire to tho backof the shop, change his coat, do his hair, give his tio a pull, and go out to dinner. I used to gaze upon these preparations with a, certain awe, and wonder if I would ever attain tho dignity of dining out at ono o'clock. Finally Biggins sought fresh fields for his intellect, and left..
As a parting token of friendship ho said to mo on his last day: "Como an' a'll shout yo at tho Welcome." Never, as long as I live, shall I forget that dinner at the Welcome. Do you remember the Welcome? It was about halfway up Willis Street, about opposite Diithie's. As you approached it from either side' you observed the sign: "Good beds, 6d. Meals, 6d." The windows were curtained, but their scanty veil offered small privacy to tho unshrinking epicures within. Here, men ate to live. Here, even, one might have eaten peas with one's knife—but then there were no peas at the Welcome. Tho menu was of sterner and more enduring stuff. To our muttons! Biggins and _ I cnteredA A tall, scrawny female,_ with a tduzled mop of red hair, immediately shrieked: "Soo-oop f two!" ' , "One thing I like about this place," said Biggins, with approval, "they don't keep ye waitin'." By what seemed to me to be a process of legerdemain two plates of soup were apported from the regions beyond, and plumped down under our noses before wo had had time to look round. Time and the Welcome, it appeared, waited for no man. As I eyed the soup a voice assailed my ear: "Ros'-beef-Ros-mutt'n-Ox-'eart-Colo-nial-gooso?" "Eh?" I inquired, in a startled
voice. " 'Urry up, an' make up yer mind," said Biggins to me. Tho lady repeated her remarks—crescendo. ' "Beef!" I said, seizing upon the first articulate syllable that I recognised. Then : we ate our soup. It was a good wholesome liquid, and plenty of it. I can't tell you what it was. At any rate, it wasn't julienne. We were no sooner down to the last mouthful than tho plates were whisked off, and course No. 2 —a fearful pile that would have left me in a state of partial coma had I finished it—came in; Biggins mado no mistake about his._ The dessert course was plum pudding or rice. If you. didn't want—or couldn't accommodate —it, you got up from the bench, paid your money, and got out. "No bog pardons 'bout this place," said Biggins, as we emerged from the atmosphere of pudding-cloth steam and the odours of dish-washing .and sundry other effluvial of the Welcome's hospitality.
Then came epicurean gradations. Knigge's across the street, charged 9d. As my circumstances improved I crossed over to Knigge's, and ate from a tablecloth —the Welcome preferred the homely oilcloth —and derived a certain aesthetic satisfaction from the more ornate furnishings of the table. Knigge's also had "Good Beds." Thereafter I despised the W r elcome, and looked down upon its patrons from the giddy heights of my ninepenny estate.
Knigge's began to pall when the era of stick-up collars, gleaming cuffs, and the "swank" which is the hereditament 'of the junior clerk began. The \Velcome seemed to belong to a remote and hoCible past, to be sealed and locked away. About this time a new restaurant opened in "Willis Street—the first Trocadero —a long, narrow room, which ostentatiously sported a coloured waiter dressed ala mode. Here one could dine with a certain pomp and cir-" cumstance for a shilling. The tonic effect of that coloured- waiter was distinct and definite. If lie had screamed in my ear as the red-haired girl of the Welcome did—l wonder where she is now?—l could, and probably would, have thrown a plate at liim. But the coloured gentleman had a brief reign, and the place stacgered alone till Podley bought it, and took it and its name along to the Quay, where a modern edition of the enterprise still remains. Some time after somebody started the Pan's House in the Wairarapa Farmers' Building. The management had some pretensions as to style, waiters, and .cuisine, and we rnuld actually experience a genuine enicuvean sensation ns we scanned the menu. But the Paris House was crushed by the weight of its well-meant and quite worthy extensions, and presently passed from memory.
And so to Walnuts and Benedictine. With Walnuts and Benedictine are associated the memory of a grave and court.lv Spaniard, who -was intpresWl in cork and the quality of hotel rooks. He gave a little dinner at the Rovnl Oak once. I can see liim now, his dark hcnl bowW in the rise-.bcht of a shadedlamp. his j>lass' raised to a toast. 'And there is another ' face— the faco of a gay and irresponsible, Iwb Well-heWed youth, who went callantlv to his death through the hell-fire of Hie Somme. Walnuts and wine—war — and then—hcisrho!
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3002, 13 February 1917, Page 6
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1,063THE RISE OF MONSIEUR BON VIVEUR Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3002, 13 February 1917, Page 6
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