6 ms·

I'm living in Melbourne and I am unaware of this. Wine and dessert? Surely you must be joking.

• hartror 16y ago
  Take a walk down Lygon st or Hardware Lane of an evening. All the maitre d's will vi for your business with the best deal. You play it cool and you can get 30%+ off the menu costs especially in a large group (Lygon St for groups, Hardware Lane can be touch and go on tables as it is smaller). I am a bit more shifty as I normally have the target place chosen before I even leave home and will try to make sure the maitre d' seeing me chatting to next door so I can play him off against them. It is all good natured and they expect it.
  • vacri 16y ago
    Now I have an image of Lygon St spruikers madly typing in vi... A near lifelong citizen of Fitzroy and Brunswick, I've noticed that locals have shifted heavily away from Lygon St - for me, I refuse to eat there simply because even after you've had a satisfying dinner, you can't walk down the street without being accosted by every spruiker you come across. Having to walk a couple of hundred meters continually chanting "no thanks, we just ate, we just ate" takes the shine from a good dinner. I'd rather pay for dessert and wine than run the spruiker gauntlet...
    • staunch 16y ago
      For the rest of us. spruiker: (Australian) One who promotes his own cause; one who toots their own horn. (figurative) A person standing outside a place of business trying to persuade patrons to enter, or vigourously trying to persuade customers to purchase a their wares (ie. a fruiterer calling out the price of bananas)
      • vacri 16y ago
        It can sometimes be quite surprising to learn which words are a part of your local vernacular.:)
    • nimms 16y ago
      There's the decent end of lygon where you can get great italian for cheap prices like tiamo. then there's the gauntlet of death down the other end. we generally walk the back streets to avoid the spruikers