Eating media lunch

Restaurant goers have become used to enjoying free meals over recent years, but now some top eateries are having second thoughts about giving away their food.

Among them is one independently owned restaurant that has just started charging for some of its offerings. The same restaurant is also setting itself against a trend known as “hogging,” by which people may wander into the restaurant, take whatever food they choose, and proceed to give it away in any form they choose.
 
Many restaurant owners had been prepared to go along with this model, on the assumption that it would increase the amount of “foot traffic” into their establishments and thereby increase business in the long run.

Business analyst Nathan Cheeseman, a regular patron of the award-winning restaurant tht has now begun charging, was among those who were aghast last Friday after discovering that as much as 20 percent of the items on the menu will now carry a small price tag.

But the restaurant owner was unrepentant. "You can't have a restaurant where you're giving away food," he said. "None of it makes sense. It's a crazy model really."

Overseas, the restaurant owner pointed out, many of the world’s top restaurants were facing a similar problem, with some of the world’s biggest and most important epicurean outlets facing bankruptcy after years of following the “free lunch” model.

That was potentially disastrous for the industry, he said, because all societies had an interest in having establishments that served great food prepared by professionals for their local clienteles — rather than simply leaving the business in the hands of "hoggers" and hoping for the best. Indeed, many top-line international restaurants have reached a similar conclusion about the old model, with one leading figure predicting that most successful establishments will also start charging for meals within the coming months.

But such developments have not been universally applauded.

"This is what happens when you're at a tipping point,” explained prominent local hogger Cameron Slater. “There's chaos because there's no set way on moving forward, so someone has to find a way."

So does the pay-to-eat model for local restaurants have a viable future?

Not according to Slater, who argues that business operations that expect to make money are defying gravity.

While Slater agreed that a strong hospitality industry was desirable, he believes it will be the hoggers who will increasingly fill that role.