I'll Leave When I'm Done Eating, Thank You Very Much
Timed table limits are creeping onto reservations everywhere, and diners shouldn’t be put on the clock
There’s a specific moment that can turn an evening sour before it even begins. Picture this: You’ve booked a reservation at that hot spot you read about weeks ago. You dressed up, you’re about to drop $500 on a night out with your date, and the first thing out of the hostess’s mouth, before hello or welcome, is that you have two hours at the table.
That’s not a greeting. That, my friends, is a deadline.
Listen, I understand why restaurants do it. Reservations stack up, tables have to turn, and one party camping out over two empty espresso ‘tinis can wreck an entire night of seatings — and revenue. I get it, and I respect the financial reasons restaurants do it, especially during a busy service.
But in this world of optimizing every freaking thing, from payroll to reservations, we forget that the undercurrent of all of this is hospitality. That is the entire point of the restaurant industry: hospitality.
...We forget that the undercurrent of all of this is hospitality.
That is the entire point of the restaurant industry: hospitality.
And let me tell ya, there’s absolutely nothing hospitable about handing someone a countdown clock along with their menus, especially now, when dinner for two at a nice place in this city could easily equal half a month’s rent without trying. For a lot of people, that’s their one night out this month, or their anniversary, the babysitter has already paid for. And then some maître d’ is telling them they have 90 minutes. Yikes.
What also irks me is that the countdown clock only really goes in one direction. If you expect me out in two hours, then serve me like you want me out in two hours! Instead, the first course lands at the 45-minute mark, the entrees at 90, and nobody pauses the countdown. The kitchen can be the bottleneck all night, and the paying diner still absorbs the penalty.
Restaurants already know the better ways to handle this - they just choose not to do it. Train the floor to read a table. Offer to buy the next party a round of drinks at the bar if their table isn’t ready. Send a manager over to the table that’s been sitting on a closed check for an hour. At the very least, put the limit in the booking confirmation, not in the greeting. Every one of those beats meeting a paying guest at the door with an expiration time.
(Places like all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ gets a pass, since the timing is the promotion at places like these, so nobody walks in surprised.)
Dining out is a treat for most people, something special that they’re spending their hard-earned money on. In a lot of cases, it’s someone’s one big night out. Let them have it. The restaurants that understand that never need to mention the time. They read the table, pace the meal, and let the night end when it ends.