Most back restaurant in 'cakeage' dispute

A Richmond restaurant's $12 "cakeage" fee has sparked a national controversy with hundreds of comments, most leaning in favour of the restaurant.

A party of nine was charged a $12 cake-cutting fee at Robbie's Bar and Bistro in Richmond this month. The group, celebrating a 70th birthday, felt aggrieved that the cake, baked as a present, was not allowed in the restaurant without them paying the charge.

Robbie's owner, Phil Hazledine, said he was shocked by the massive response to the story, printed in yesterday's Nelson Mail.

"I think it's great so many people have come forward with their views and the fee has never been about making money. But I can't afford it to cost me money, I love people coming in with their cakes but I can't let it cost me," he said.

However, Mr Hazledine said he is now reviewing the policy to try and make it easier for smaller groups.

"What I will probably do is review it for the smaller groups, I am thinking about changing it to a 50 cent charge per person, with a cap of $12 for one group," he said.

The cake fee sparked a torrent of strong reaction with more than 100 online comments in an hour and more than 50 emails sent to the Nelson Mail.

Readers who sent emails were evenly split between being outraged at the cakeage fee or disgusted at the complaints, and online most believed the fee was fair. There was one comment from as far afield as Argentina.

Many sympathised with the restaurant, saying it needed to cover costs and likened the cakeage to a corkage charge.

Margot Rowling believes the cake-cutting fee is fair. "Unless you have been involved in the food industry you may not appreciate some of the costs of running a restaurant and it's not just food and staff. Better this way than increase the price of everything or having to close down as some other eating establishments have had to do lately."

Simon Smith, of Christchurch, said: "It's absolutely fair. It's no different to paying corkage if you take your own wine to some restaurants. The restaurant is going to incur costs by providing plates and cutlery, and possibly staff time to serve the cake.

"Between nine of them the cost would only have been $1.33 each. They should stop being so tightfisted."

Robbie's is not the only restaurant charging cakeage. A diner told of being charged $10 a person cakeage at a Wellington restaurant, making $40 for the group of four.

Jill Alexander, who celebrated her birthday with 20 friends at a Wellington restaurant, was charged $125. "Sadly I hadn't checked first so was `ambushed' with this fee and without making a fuss in front of my guests, I felt I couldn't challenge it. I have never returned to that restaurant, this was too much to pay."

Another reader planned a birthday celebration at Robbie's but was astounded at being told it would cost $12 for their cake cutting.

"We went and had the meal then came home to eat the cake and have coffee. There were eight of us and if you calculated the cost of eight coffees it would have been nearly three times the cost of cutting the cake. You don't need to be Einstein to work out that they would have made more money on coffees."

Julie Leckey said the charge was ridiculous. "What a load of rubbish about covering `staff costs'. I'm sure they lost business by charging such a stupid fee and people going elsewhere would totally outweigh the few cents it would cost to wash the plates."

Brenda Skurr said she had a great 50th birthday dinner with 23 friends at Lone Star in Nelson on Saturday and was not charged for a surprise chocolate cake one had brought.

"Every one of those people walked away with happy memories of a great night that we are now passing on to other people and I think the business they will get from the positive feedback will far outweigh the cost of having a cake cut in their restaurant."

Dan Perlman of restaurant Casa SaltShaker in Buenos Aires, Argentina said: "As a restaurateur, I think it's completely fair. Twelve dollars to cut a cake? That's nothing. Think about how much most fine dining restaurants charge for opening a bottle of wine ... which one takes more work on the part of the restaurant staff? The cake, in most cases.

"Plus, I'm sorry, but there's no reason a restaurant has to allow anyone to bring in any outside food (or drink) – they're in the business of selling those things, and someone bringing their own loses them a sale. What other business would allow such a thing without expecting some sort of `cut'?"

Online, Sam Yau, the president of the Canterbury Malaysian Society, said: "In my opinion, it is not matter of fair or unfair. If they want to charge for the cake cutting, the policy must be clearly printed on the menu. Then all parties will know those extra charges."

Baker of the cake June Thompson said this morning that she was "amazed" by the response and had been fielding calls since the story broke. "I was surprised to see so much reaction, probably because a lot of people are not aware of it," she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News