You should read George Ritzer. Your butt in that seat isn't you, it's #4 at table 12. You're a time limit between the reservation you had and the reservation someone else has. Or, if you're at a chain restaurant, it's the time limit between you and the person holding that little light up pager. It's about a reservation that your rapacious wit might be cutting into if you settle in to enjoy a nice meal, a good bottle of wine, and fine company. The waiter pouring out the wine is a symbol that means move it along, buddy. It's hard to linger over an empty bottle or glass of wine, isn't it? If you're taking up that valuable real estate, at least you'll be paying for it by ordering a new bottle, if you do. Not that a new bottle will be a problem. They'll help you empty it to move you out. Someone else's butt is supposed to be in #4 at table 12 at 9:30 and while you're having a great time, they've got five minutes to get rid of you and then clean your mess.

You think it's about making a few more bucks on a bottle of wine. I think you've missed the mark entirely. We're on a schedule. We've got a rational way of approaching the world in everything we do. A restaurant, no matter how upscale, is still an assembly line and the diner is just another cog in the machine. The successful restaurant is one that can predictably deliver quality service and quality food every time. The only way that can happen, at least in our system, is by controlling everything that happens in that restaurant, including the behavior of the diners. That means making sure you get seated on time. That means making sure diners don't linger.

...but if two of us are spending over $300.00+ in a fine dining restaurant and some waiter pulls that crap, you're begging for trouble. See my story below.

See, I've done your job. I know exactly what you're talking about. You don't want to rush tables that are spending good bucks on wine. You want to rush the tourists that aren't drinking at all, the teenyboppers that will only sit and giggle like idiots, and the morons that are hoping to see "someone".

The customers you want to keep are the ones that spend money and time, and will bring guests the next time.

It might have been all right to treat customers like garbage in the '80s, when the economy was booming, and les nouveaus still though that snottiness was "normal". Remember that we're going into a recession here, and one of the first things that's going to get cut out of the budget is eating out.

You're going to NEED your regulars soon, if you don't need them already.

socsci387, if that's how your restaurant perceives its customers, then please post the name of the restaurant where you work so that I can avoid it.

Very true, it all boils down to greed, doesn't it? A way to squeeze just a little more profit out of one's business model, never pausing to consider the fact that this is the service industry.

Since I've moved to Europe, I've gotten used to the fact that while you'll pay one euro more for that cup of coffee or five more for the bottle of wine, it will guarantee that you aren't pressured to move along. In a city full of tourists like the one in which I live, the restaurants could certainly make more money if they adopted the American business model, but it's a conscious and cultural choice. Some people eat quickly and others linger, no big deal.

Seems to be one more aspect of Europe's enlightened socialism. I've been in Europe for about a year and a half. I'm far from the heart of the cafe culture, but if a friend and I want to linger and chat for an hour over a pastry and a cappuccino while watching a Mediterranean sunset, more power to us. Truly a refreshing outlook. :-)

The need for quick table "turnover" is also the reason so many restaurants now are designed with all tile, glass, and metal surfaces, so that the din of conversation from other tables, often accompanied by loud music, drives people out.

Socsci387 is totally right. The restaurant industry is a business, just like any other.

However, It seems to go against the nature, or self-interest, of the business to act in this way.

MessyONE:

Normally in a restaurant that's offering a $300 bottle of wine, reservations are allotted more time. The nicer the place, the longer the dining period--usually.

"Usually", indeed. And there's the rub, isn't it? We don't eat out a lot. The Boy is a serious amateur cook and we have a good selection of wines at home. When we do go out, we tend to go to places where they take their food (and their wine lists) seriously. The incident in Toronto was inexcusable. That chef/owner deserves to be out of business. You don't get to open a fine dining restaurant and treat your clientele as if they're at Arby's.

You're right about the high end restaurants, though. We have never felt rushed at places like Bouchon, MK, Talleulah's, or any of the other places that rate as favorites. Those places tend to hire truly professional waitstaff that are trained well and experts at dealing with people. They won't tolerate Bibsy and Boopsy giggling at the front of the house or waiters that babble.

Agreed on the Toronto incident, that's inexcusably lame.

It's hard for me sometimes because, like others, I've spent lots of time on both sides. It sucks when people linger, because the next table is usuallly pissed because they had to wait x number of minutes past their reservation. And, when I'm out, I hate to be rushed. That's why I got out of the biz. Don't miss it for a second.

Um. I don't work in a restaurant. Socsci is short for social science. I'm a sociologist.

In Europe, you pay twice as much for half the food, and that money goes to pay the waiter a real wage. Combine that with paid vacation and medical benefits, and you have a very different system than the one in the United States.

In the U.S., a waiter is paid about $3.00 an hour - with no paid vacation, holidays, or med benefits. The waiter is also taxed based on the total of the bill you run up. The waiter has to pay the bar tenders and bar back, bus boys, food runners, and some prep people out of his tips. If you pay your waiter less than 15%, chances are he ends up owing money because he waited on your table. It's not just a loss, it puts him in the hole.

If you sit in his station all night long, he's not making any additional money because you are tying up his source of income for the evening. If he has four or five tables, that's 20% to 25% of his income for the evening.

Is the European version better? You bet. But considering the fact that many people in the U.S. are balk at the idea of paying an additional 20% on top of their current bill, how do you think they'd feel about paying 100% more than their current bill (for half the food, which can be eaten more quickly than the gigantic American portions)?

DeaH:

Is the European version better? You bet. But considering the fact that many people in the U.S. are balk at the idea of paying an additional 20% on top of their current bill, how do you think they'd feel about paying 100% more than their current bill (for half the food, which can be eaten more quickly than the gigantic American portions)?

Perhaps a little exaggerated, but a good point. It's only close to double the price if you count the exchange rate. For Europeans, 12 Euros is worth the same as $12 is for Americans, so restaurants don't feel as expensive as they would to American tourists.

DeaH:

In Europe, you pay twice as much for half the food, and that money goes to pay the waiter a real wage. Combine that with paid vacation and medical benefits, and you have a very different system than the one in the United States.

In the U.S., a waiter is paid about $3.00 an hour - with no paid vacation, holidays, or med benefits. The waiter is also taxed based on the total of the bill you run up. The waiter has to pay the bar tenders and bar back, bus boys, food runners, and some prep people out of his tips. If you pay your waiter less than 15%, chances are he ends up owing money because he waited on your table. It's not just a loss, it puts him in the hole.

If you sit in his station all night long, he's not making any additional money because you are tying up his source of income for the evening. If he has four or five tables, that's 20% to 25% of his income for the evening.

Is the European version better? You bet. But considering the fact that many people in the U.S. are balk at the idea of paying an additional 20% on top of their current bill, how do you think they'd feel about paying 100% more than their current bill (for half the food, which can be eaten more quickly than the gigantic American portions)?

Good points.

Actually, some restaurants are offering health care these days. I had it with two different places in CA. Also, California pays minimum wage (about $8 /hr) to waitstaff, which is unsual. So you end up getting a $200 check every two weeks.

Waiting can be hard work, and I don't miss it one iota, but you can also make a shit-ton of money in a short period of time. At the last place I worked, the average was about $250 per shift, occasionly going towards $400. So, it's not too bad. But, it's also a bullshit job (in my opinion) because your entire workday is dependant on the whims of others, which is not worth the money, for me.

Good thing, too. Besides, we move regularly, so we try all manner of restaurants wherever we live. One of the current favorites is an Ecuadorean place where no reservations are taken and the decor is early 70s cafeteria/later 70s Holly Hobby. Fabulous food and marvelous margaritas, and all within walking distance from home. What more could you ask for?

The problem with a large table is the difference between management and the waiter. It's all in the math. You can have six people together who will happily spend about a thousand bucks or you can seat three deuces, who will spend, total, around six hundred. That's assuming they order wine and have dessert. Choose.

If people are seated too closely together in time, then there are two places the problem is happening - either the front of house people are morons who didn't take a large table into account, or management is financially in the shit and doesn't care if they get any repeat customers.

Smart restaurant owners these days add the tip to the bill for anything over $400.00 if they're smart, and those that spend that much on dinner are happy to pay it. Thank God for that too, because I well remember being stiffed by that table of eight frat boys....The owner called their fathers on that one. There was damage.