HROUGHOUT its 33-year existence, The Lobster Pot restaurant has staked its success on two major factors ? consistently good food and friendly service.

The basic formula has stood the test of time and against increased competition over the years.

Soon after the late Fritz Reiter opened the Bermudiana Road eatery in April 1973, business was booming to the extent that the front door frequently had to be locked to keep people out.

Mr. Reiter was a German chef, who moved to the island in the 1960s to work at the Hoppin? John restaurant, on the site which now houses Caf? Cairo.

A larger-than-life character, famed for his extraordinary generosity, Mr. Reiter died four years ago after a two-year battle with cancer.

Over the past three decades, restaurants have mushroomed all over Hamilton, but The Lobster Pot, which remains true to Mr. Reiter?s ideals, is still packing them in.

On the Monday after the Cup Match holiday ? usually a quiet day day for the business ? the restaurant served 100 lunches and 140 dinners.

Eight years ago, it started opening on Sundays for the first time ? now it is serving 120 dinners most Sunday evenings.

Mr. Reiter?s widow Joan still has a 60 per cent share of the business, while their daughter Lynn Bardgett and her ex-husband Eddie Bardgett each own 20 per cent.

?Fritz was the unofficial Minister of Tourism,? Mr. Bardgett said, who started working at The Lobster Pot 25 years ago. ?People flocked here from everywhere to see him. Sometimes he would sit here with a group of friends until 4 a.m.

?I had not been to college, but when I started going out with Fritz?s daughter, he offered me the chance to get involved, even though I knew nothing about the restaurant business. At first I worked as a waiter and then Fritz sent me off to Cornell University for management courses.

?He was always supportive and generous and when Glenn Astwood and I had the chance to sail in the Olympics in 1988, he gave me the time to do it and he even bought us a Tornado boat.

?The year I started working here, my father died. And Fritz became like a father to me.?

Mr. Bardgett considers himself a ?traditionalist?, as, he said, was his mentor Mr. Reiter.

?He always taught me to make sure that we should have good food and good service and to deliver that consistently,? Mr. Bardgett said. ?There are items on the menu that have been there since day one and we wouldn?t want to change them.

?It might sound boring, but people often say, ?There?s no need for a menu, I know what I?m having?, because they know exactly what they?re going to get. Those are the constants that keep places like this alive.?

he restaurant?s decor is one of the things that customers love. The old lobster pots that hang from the dining room ceiling have been there since the restaurant opened ? although the varnished lobster shells were added only last year ? as has the section of rowing boat hanging from the wall of the Boathouse Bar.

Some things have changed. Fishing nets that used to hang from the ceiling beams were removed some 23 years ago. Bamboo partitions that once divided table spaces have been removed in favour of an open plan. And in recent years, the bar has been overhauled, meeting the approval of most, if not all, of the clientele.

Lynn Bardgett has seen all the restaurant?s changes, having worked for her father as a teenager, straight out of hospitality training at Bermuda College.

?I don?t think The Lobster Pot has changed character at all over the years,? Ms Bardgett said. ?We have made a few changes to the place, just to keep up with the times, but we don?t want to modernise it too much and change what it is.

?A lot of people say they like the new bar, but a few say they preferred the old one. We used to have the lobster tank in the restaurant, just around the corner from the front door. But now it?s inside the kitchen, because some people said they didn?t like to see what they were going to eat.

?But the friendly service has always been the same. We always try to make people as welcome as possible, even with different staff. We used to have all Bermudian staff on the floor, now we only have one. There was a group of women who worked here for 25 or 30 years, who came in with Fritz and stayed until they were 65 years old. We didn?t find local people to replace them and now our people are from all over the world ? Croatia, Italy, England, Canada and India.?

he lack of locals interested in joining the business is a source of regret to both partners, who believe the island is not sufficiently promoting the possibilities in the hospitality industry for its young people.

?When I first started here, we were all Bermudians, except for in the kitchen,? Mr. Bardgett recalled. ?Now there are very few Bermudians and it?s the same in virtually every restaurant on the island.

?I think we need to teach our children more about it in schools, rather than making it all about computers.

?But I think we?ve put education relating to the tourism industry on the back burner.

?When I get people interested in a job, I tell them, ?You can make a lot of money, but you have to work hard for it. You have an intensely busy time for three or four hours, then you get to relax a bit?.

?Sometimes people lose interest after that, but it?s better they know before they start what it?s going to be like.

?You have to make sacrifices in terms of the anti-social hours, but the people you meet are the great thing about the job.?

Bermuda chefs are even rarer than local wait staff and The Lobster Pot is backing a scholarship in memory of Mr. Reiter, the idea of some of the late businessman?s friends, to create opportunities.

Funds for the scholarship, details of which are being finalised this week, are being raised from a golf event, as Mr. Reiter loved the sport and sponsored The Lobster Pot Invitational Tournament for many years.