9:22am Thursday 25th February 2010
By Richard Garfield
LION dancing heralding the Chinese New Year proved to be a real spectacle at the Mayflower Restaurant in Basingstoke last Sunday.
Diners at the Top of The Town restaurant were treated to an energetic lion dance per formed by the World Eagle Claw Kung Fu Association Lion Dance Team.
Pamela Cheng, who turned the former St John Ambulance station in May Place into the popular restaurant with her husband Alan in 2006, predicts good fortune for the Year of the Tiger.
Pamela said: “I think it’s going to be a good year for business. Last year was the Year of the Ox, and even though we’ve been through a recession, it was still a good year for us.
We expect to have an even better year with the Year of the Tiger.”
The spectacular lion dance, performed by two dancers, accompanied by drums, gongs and cymbals, is an important Chinese New Year tradition.
“In the old days, it was performed to take any bad luck away and bring good luck in,”
explained Pamela.
And the outlook for the Mayflower certain ly looks good, as it has just topped a local business poll commissioned by TheBestOf websites.
The directory of local businesses, which operates locally as TheBestOfBasingstoke, received more than 138,000 testimonials for its 14 Days of Love campaign, when it invit ed shoppers to show their love of local firms, shops and restaurants, involving 30,000 businesses drawn from almost 400 towns.
The Mayflower was voted the most loved small business in Basingstoke. Pamela said: “It’s fantastic to have received so many testi monials and to see how much our customers appreciate the great food on offer and the welcoming atmosphere.” Steve Allen, who runs the TheBestOf Basingstoke website, said: “Pam is running a superb business, and should be rightly proud. What’s been underscored again and again in this campaign is just how many fan tastic local businesses there are in Basingstoke today.”
Other Basingstoke businesses that fared well in the website poll were The Lime Leaf restaurant, in London Street, and Trilbys barber shop and hairdressers in Potters Walk.
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