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Reports of the demise of the $7.50 North Gong Hotel schnitzel have been somewhat exaggerated. Last week, a change.org petition was started calling for the hotel to re-instate the much-loved $7.50 schnitty, claiming the price had shot up to $10.50. News of the schnitty’s apparent disappearance went viral and more than a few people voiced their disapproval online. But North Gong Hotel licensee Doug Sweeney said $7.50 will still get you a schitznel, chips and garden salad on a Wednesday night. “While we’ve only been in charge of the hotel for three and a half years, we’ve always understood in time the $7.50 offer would be unsustainable,” he said. “But rather than increase the price of the meal we’ve gone the path of charging for the additionals.” That means extras like sauces and a choice of salads that were previously included in the $7.50 price tag will now cost extra. Sauces other than tomato or barbecue will cost a $1 extra while if a diner wants to choose another sort of salad, that’s $2 extra. Buy all the extras and it is a $10.50 schitty. But if you only want a $7.50 schnitty, well, that’s still on the menu. Mr Sweeney reckoned about 90 per cent of schnitty purchasers opted for a sauce or gravy, while more than half were quite happy with the standard garden salad. Mr Sweeney said he was a little surprised with the “blowback” on social media since the change was brought in last week as part of a new menu. However he said most customers didn’t seem to mind. “On the night the feedback wasn’t as bad at it might seem from social media,” Mr Sweeney said. “A lot of people were like ‘yep, that’s fine, no worries. Happy to pay it’.” Mr Sweeney said the $7.50 schnitty was a “long-standing tradition” at the pub and that charging for extras was a way of ensuring the University of Wollongong student favourite survived. “It’s something we considered for a little while to start charging for sauces and additional salad options,” he said. “We’re probably the only pub in town that either isn’t charging for sauces or gives people a choice of four or five different salads every day. “From a cost point of view, preparing that many salads and the wastage that was going on, we made the decision it wasn’t a viable option moving forward.”

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