Eat, Drink and be Merry: Dining Out

Before the 1960s, New Zealanders wanting to dine out had a limited choice both of venue and of food. Restaurants, cafes, dining rooms of hotels, tearooms, coffee shops and oyster bars presented a narrow menu of grilled meats and hearty desserts.

Alcohol could not be served with food  until changes in the liquor licensing laws in 1961 allowed its consumption outside hotels, including those such as the Chateau Tongariro which were run by the government's tourism section.

 Alcohol consumption in public bars and hotels was subject to stringent regulation, although not necessarily policing, for much of the twentieth century. Women and Maori were not always allowed to enter hotels or to purchase alcohol, and some districts had a total prohibition on alcohol. New Zealand introduced six o'clock closing in 1917 as a war time measure, and in response to the campaigns of the temperance and prohibition movements.  Closing times did not alter until 1967, when the introduction of 10 p.m. closing marked the end of the 'six o'clock swill'. Changed closing times also enabled the opening of a range of establishments serving alcohol, such as the popular 1960s Auckland venue, the MonDesir Beer Garden, where women and men mingled freely.  
 

As the food historian David Burton has noted, a more sophisticated culture of food, cooking and dining out began to develop from the late 1950s. The combined influence of New Zealanders returning from sojourns abroad and new migrant groups�members of which helped establish New Zealand's wine-growing industry�widened culinary expectations here. Each major centre boasted a Chinese restaurant by 1960, and recipe books began to include more 'exotic' dishes featuring rice, pasta and spices. North American influences were seen in the development of hamburger bars and the fast food chains that appeared in the 1970s�Kentucky Fried Chicken (1970/71), followed by Pizza Hut (1975) and McDonalds (1979). Such venues encouraged a more relaxed form of dining, like that enjoyed by patrons of Queenstown's The Cow Pizza Restaurant in the early 1980s.