Pensioner gags on 'cakeage' fee

Noel and Aloha Trainor. Photo / Brett Phibbs

When you bring your own wine to a restaurant it's common to be charged corkage. But what about cakeage - or knifeage?

Hillsborough retiree Aloha Trainor is stunned to have been charged $6.50 for being supplied with a knife to cut a cake at The Library Cafe and Function Venue in Onehunga last Sunday.

The 72-year-old was enjoying an early celebration of her 50th wedding anniversary - which is today - with husband Noel in a party of 13 people.

She said she was "disgusted" to learn the group had been charged $6.50 because of the cake.

"I said: 'What? What for? For the loan of a knife? For the matter of cutting up a little banana cake?' And I said: 'I don't believe it.' Had I known that, we would have kept a knife from our dinners. It just blew me away."

Mrs Trainor said the group used only a knife and had not been given plates or cutlery. She said she had taken cakes to restaurants her entire life and had never before faced the "ludicrous" charge.

The Library owner Debbie Leaver told the Weekend Herald she had spoken to staff who informed her that a man from Mrs Trainor's group was handed napkins and cutlery by staff who informed him of the "cakeage" charge on Sunday, which was the cafe's busiest day in two years.

"We don't charge $6 for the use of a knife, we charge 50c per person 'cakeage', which is what we call it. And that covers us providing plates, serviettes, forks, knives. All of those things need to be washed, so in actual fact we don't even cover the cost of that."

Mrs Leaver said that often large groups came in with their own cake and simply bought one coffee each, but stayed for hours.

"That means that table has been occupied for a period of time and has restricted potential sales from us. It's only very small - $6 to use that table isn't a lot of money.

"It is difficult ... we're in an amazing building with high overheads. These are just the things that we have to do to stay sustainable - and it is simply about sustainability, it's not about profitability."

Mrs Leaver said she would be informing customers about the charge in her next newsletter and putting signs up in the cafe.

Hospitality Association of New Zealand chief executive Bruce Robertson said it was up to individual operators to choose what they charged customers for.

"If they want to do that ... they should have a discussion with the customer before anybody gets there."

WHAT THEY CHARGE

* GPK on Ponsonby Rd: Allows patrons to bring their own cakes - for a $20 fee.
* Soul Bar on Auckland's Viaduct: Does not accept bring-your-own cakes.
* Prego in Ponsonby: A flat rate of $10.50 was charged for bringing a cake. "You're basically not going to have our desserts which are $10.50 a head, but it's just a flat rate of $10.50," the woman said.
* Sale St, Freemans Bay: When asked if there was a charge for a group bringing in a birthday cake, a staff member said, "No, absolutely not."