Return of business lunches a glorious throwback to golden era
Big business lunches were big business for Melbourne’s restaurants, so could returning to a hallmark of the golden era be the silver bullet that solves the crisis facing the restaurant industry?
VIC News
Don't miss out on the headlines from VIC News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Legendary Melbourne long-luncher Derryn Hinch recalls how lunches in the 1980s went well into the night.
“Lunches in the 1980s were bankers’ hours from one to two, that’s 1pm to 2am,” Mr Hinch told the Sunday Herald Sun yesterday.
“Before FBT you could go to lunch and take a business partner and you’d stay all day.”
His top three places for long lunches in Melbourne were the Flower Drum, South Melbourne’s Golden Gate Hotel and Lynch’s in South Yarra.
Big business lunches were once big business for Melbourne’s restaurants, but sealed deals over duck came to an end when Paul Keating introduced the fringe benefits tax in 1986.
Almost overnight the long lunch went off faster than a prawn cocktail in the sun.
“I thought Keating would never get it through, but he did,” he said.
“I can see why the industry wants it, but I fear it will never happen.”
But one of Melbourne’s legendary long lunchers didn’t let such a pesky thing as the ATO get in the way of his favoured pastime.
Through the ’80s and into the naughties, John Elliott held equal court in Melbourne’s restaurants and boardrooms.
These days, corporate titans are more likely to talk shop over a game of squash than steak and shiraz, but in a post-COVID world where gyms have germs perhaps bringing back the long lunch would be good for the health of us all — including and especially our restaurant industry.
MORE NEWS
POPULAR EATERY AXES WORKERS AMID ‘DEEP HIBERNATION’
RESTAURATEURS RALLY BACK INTERNATIONAL WORKERS IN CRISIS