My child is learning about rationing and world war 2, only being allowed 1 egg, 2 ounces tea/butter a week etc.
When the rich went to high class restaurants, how did they dine out? I’m assuming the hotel/restaurant had some sort of growing area for veg, chickens etc, or was there a lot of black market dealing going on?
Tea at the ritz, dinner at claridges etc. what went on to allow the rich to carry on acting rich?
In: Economics
1. Food served in restaurants were during the entire war “off-ration”. Ie, it didn’t count for rationing.
2. Until 1942 the high-tier restaurants were serving food as usual. Which sparked quite a lot of anger until the british government cracked down on it with a law that stated that restaurants could no longer charge more than 25 pence for a meal. While some restaurants circumvented this rule to some extent by charging entrance/music fees this generally had the desired effect.
3. There sprung up some amount of black market restaurants, but in large restaurant menues adapted to using non-rationed items. Vegetables that could be grown locally (Potatoes, onions, carrots, beets etc which were not rationed) or for example spam. So much Spam.
In some locations, people who ate out a lot had to give the restaurant their ration book: [Persons Eating Regularly At Cafes, Institutions, Must Pay Ration Points](http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/homefront/homefront.news.wye.19430505)
Restaurants also changed their menus to reflect the foods they could actually get. In other places, I’m sure the black market was a factor, too: [The Restaurant Industry During World War 2.](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/restaurant-industry-during-world-war-2-jay-ashton-qazpc)
[This thread from 6 years ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/697hgh/how_did_rationing_affect_restaurants_and_hotels/) might help answer your question.
I have a question about rationing: did it mean that the only way to get food was to use ration cards or grow it yourself, or did grocery stores still carry food to buy?
What if you needed more food that you were allotted by the ration cards, was there anything you could do?
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