"DINNER CRASHERS"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 237, 27 May 1932, Page 7

"DINNER CRASHERS"

STRANGE NEW PEST LGNDON SOCIAL BUTTERFLIES WHO IMPOSE ON RESTAURANTS FREE FOOD AND WINES. . j LONDON, Saturday. West End restauranis have declared waf on "Dinner , Crashers." ■ Men and wpmeh dining in, well . known restaurants, hotels and night clubs have been signing bills which after the meal they refuse to pay. The frouble hegan 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 i 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 preseiited the bill for cocktails and' dinner wines. The restauranteurs are comhing in se]f-defence, forming a black list, suing offenders, and limiting the free dinner credit to £15. One well known establishment has outstanding dinner bills of £3000, of which only £150 is' realisable. Other hotel habitues, trading on the i belief that their presence is a good advertisement, include a nobleman who ran up a bill for t £100 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.