Berni Inn Menu 1973
I came across this 1973 menu from the Berni Steak Bar in Liverpool. The restaurant was a modernist building near the Liver Building. It opened in 1967.
Inside the menu is a picture of a smartly dressed family who have got out of a Truimph Herald car. The car would have been at least two years' old in 1973. Bernie was targeting Mr and Mrs average with two children and a modest car.
The menu choices are basic.
There are no starters, but a choice of Fino or cream sherry as an aperitif. Soft drinks are also limited: chilled fruit juice or tomato juice.
There is a choice of three mains: rump steak for £1.04, gammon and egg for 90p or plaice and chips for 75p. All are served with chips.
Desserts are ice cream or cheese and biscuits and are included in the price. In today's money these prices are £8.95, £7.75 and £6.50. So very good value for money.
There was wine with the meal and liqueur coffees to follow. You may have preferred not to drive as the breathalyzer came in 1967.
The wines give a good idea of popular taste:
Reds- Spanish - full red - £1.04
- Bordeaux - Medoc - £1.26
- Beaujolais - £1.37
- Chateauneuf de Pape - £1.43
- Chianti (large flask) - £1.76
There are some classics here. The Chianti would have come in flask half covered in wicker.
Rosé- Anjou Rosé (Loire) - £1.21
- Mateus Rosé - £1.54
- Spanish - sweet white - £1.04
- Yugoslav Riesling - £1.20
- Sauternes - £1.49 [a dessert wine today]
- Liebfraumilch- £1.43
- Champagne (non-vintage) - £2.95
There was a taste for sweet whites. Not a dry one amongst the whites apart from the Champagne and that might have been sweet. The Champagne wasn't expesnive either. It works out at £25 in today's money. Try finding one at that price today in a restaurant.
The liqueur coffees were a 70s classic. They were made with sugar and served in a large wine glass with the cream floating on the top.
Liqueurs coffees cost 30p and there was a choice of:
- Irish - with Irish whiskey
- French - with brandy
- Scotch - with scotch
- Italian - with strega
- Russian - with vodka
- Caribbean - with rum
- Aquavit -with aquavit (*)
- Mexican - with Kahlua (**)
- Calypso - with Tia Maria
- Special - with Cointreau
(*) I'd never heard of this one. It's a distilled spirit from Norway. The word means 'water of life', the same meaning as whisky.
(**) Kahlua is a Mexican coffee flavoured liqueur made with rum
The Berni Inn chain started in 1955 when Aldo and Frank Berni opend the first Berni Steakhouse, Rummers in Bristol.
The brothers weren't new to the catering trade. They opened their first restaurant, Hort's in Bristol in 1943.
The Berni concept was based on the American steakhouse. It offered limited, but value for money menus and plush red decor. The idea took off. Berni Inns became a public company in 1962.
In 1970 the brothers sold out to Grand Metropolitan, owners of Watneys. This menu is from that era.
The chain prospered in the 1970s, but ran out of steam in the 1980s. Berni's became Beefeaters when Grand Met, sold the chain to Whitbread in 1995.
Read more: Berni inns in the 1980s
Berni Inns around the country
This is a complete list of Berni Inns from 1973
Bath
- Berni Royal
- The Oliver
Bedford
- Silver Tavern
Birmingham
- The Plough, Solihull
- Wagon & Horses, Sheldon
- White Swan, Edmund Street
- The Exchange, New Street Shopping Centre
Bolton
- Golden Lion
Boston
- White Hart Hotel
Bracknall
- Old Manor
Bradford
- The Grosvenor
Braintree
- The Horn
Brighton
- The Posada
Bristol
- Berni Tavern
- Hawthorne Hotel
- Hole in the Wall
- Hort's Restaurant - the Berni brothers' first restaurant
- Llandoger Trow
- Marco's Tavern
- Marco's Trattoria
- The Posada
- The Rummer - the first Berni Steakhouse
Bromley
- Royal Bell
Burton-on-Trent
- The Queen's
Cambridge
- Berni Steak Bar
- Turk's Head
Canterbury
- Tudor Tavern
Cardiff
- Borough Arms
- The Criterion
- Newmarket Tavern
Cheltenham
- Montpellier Grill
- The Star
Chester
- The Criterion
Chesterfield
- Queen's Head
Chingford
- Bull & Crown
Coventry
- Shepherd & Shepherdess
Darlington
- The Cameron
Derby
- Iron Gates Tavern
Doncaster
- Red Lion
Dublin
- The Berni Inn
Epsom
- The Berni Inn
Exeter
- Hole in the Wall
- White Lion
Eynsham, Oxfordshire
- The Evenlode
Gatwick
- Berni Steak Bar
- Gatwick Alanor
- Gatwick Manor Motel
Glasgow
- The Berni Inn
Gloucester
- Berni Steak Bar
- New Inn
Gravesend
- Clarendon Royal Hotel
Grimsby
- The Berni Inn
Guildford
- Market Tavern
Halifax
- Boar's Head
Harrow Weald
- Leefe Robinson
Henley-on-Thames
- Catherine Wheel
Hereford
- The Imperial
Hull
- New York Hotel
- White House Hotel
Ipswich
- Limmers Tavern
Iver
- Crooked Billet
Kidderminster
- Riverboat Inn
King's Lynn
- Globe Hotel
Kingston upon Thames
- Berni Steak Bar
Leeds
- The Albion
- Athenaeum Tavern
- Jacomelli's
Leicester
- Berni Steak Bar
- Fish and Quart
- Wolsey Tavern
Leamington Spa
- The Berni Inn
Lincoln
- The Falcon
Liverpool
- The Albany
- Berni Steak Bar
- Mersey Tavern
- River Inn
London
- Berni Steak Bar, 185 Oxford Street, W1
- Berni Steak Bar, Upper Richmond Road, Putney
- Berni Steak Bar, Wimbledon, SW19
- The Feathers, Ealing Broadway
- The Oxford, 79 Oxford Street, Wl
Long Eaton
- The Royal
Loughborough
- Black Bull
Luton
- Queen's Head
Maidenhead
- The Crown
Manchester
- Cafe Royal
- Hole in the Wall
- The Kingsway
Mansfield
- The Hutt
Meriden
- Bull's Head
Neath
- The Cambrian
New Brighton
- Queen's Royal
Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Berni Tavern
Newport, Monmouthshire
- Royal Albert
- Tredegar Arms
Northampton
- The Wedgwood
Norwich
- Berni Steak Bar
- Norfolk Tavern
Nottingham
- Black Boy Inn
- The Britannia
- The Chateau
- The Grosvenor
- Old Cricket Players
- Sawyer's Arms
- The New Welbeck
Oldham
- Café Monico
Oxford
- Jericho House
- The Mitre
Plymouth
- Berni-Grand The Crown
Port Talbot
- Grand Hotel
Rochdale
- The Wellington
St. Albans
- Tudor Tavern
Salisbury
- County Hotel
- Milford Arms
Scarborough
- The Cliff
Shefield
- Berni Steak Bar
- The Norton
- Old No 12
Shrewsbury
- The Criterion
Southampton
- The Belmont
- The Oriental
Southport
- Fox & Goose
- Thorps Tavern
Stockton-on-Tees
- The Metropole
Stroud
- Imperial Hotel
Sutton
- The Grapes
Swansea
- The Bush
- Grand Hotel
- Three Lamps
Swindon
- The Rifleman
Tamworth
- Peel Arms
Taunton
- Market House
- Tudor Tavern
Trowbridge
- The Woolpack
Wigan
- The Minorca
Windsor
- The Berni Inn
Wokingham
- Ye Olde Rose Inne
Wolverhampton
- Town Hall Tavern
Worcester
- Pack House
Yeovil
- The Pall
York
- Black Bull
- The Windmill
Source: 'Come again value!' an advert for Berni Inn published in the Daily Mirror, 14 August 1973
Comments
Taken to The Queen's B.O.T by my husband on 2nd date back in 1972 felt really posh had fillet steak and after the coffee liqueur,I had never had anything like that before.We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary there. He sadly passed away last year, we often reminisced about the times we went there together.
Trainee Manager in 1972 at The Bull's Head , Meriden. My first job after graduating from North Staffs Poly. Mr Wood was the boss and the rest of the Management Team all seemed to be called 'Bob'. I'll never forget the lovely 'Sylvia' the barmaid: wow! Great Days; me, I'm well retired, following a long and successful career teaching hospitality management.
I left the Royal Navy and joined Bernie Inns as a trainee manager in 1967,
Then went to the riverboat in Kidderminster as assistant manager followed by relief manager at the Plough in Shirley,Cameron in Darlington,Shepherd and Shepherdess in Coventry,Feathers in Ealing and I opened Queens Royal in New Brighton and Clarendon Royal in Gravesend.
Great company to work for brill stock controls
I started my time with Berni inns at the river inn as asst Mng plus working in all four liverpool inns and due to the managers I’ll health I took over and run it for sometime I was rewarded by taking over Thorps tav in Southport and then Cafe royal Manchester what a business after that The Hutt in Ravenshead Mansfield through the miners strike ,then onto The Chateau West Bridgeford to Castle Marina Nottingham and then moved on what great times. Jim &Lisa Conway.