It is nice to come into a resteraunt and sit to eat but how long do you get to keep your table until you should get up and leave so hte resteraunt can sit and serve someone else? obviously you have the time that it takes you to actually order, get, and eat your food but how long after you are done eating do you get to sit?
On average it takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to order and get your food. Then it takes about twnety minutes to eat so on average it takes around forty minutes to order, get, and eat your food in a triditional sit-down resteraunt. then after that you need to pay the bill-that is where the waiting happens in most resteraunts but not mine, Sweetie Pies gets the bill to the customer not long after the food is consumed and the plates are cleared at the time of the bill drop. so at Sweetie Pies the bill gets to the customer about forty minutes after they sit down. so how long do the workers allow the customers to sit after they have finished and are paying?
for a hostess this can be a very complicated question because i need that table to sit the people that are on a list up fornt and waiting outside for a seat but i cannot just ask the peopel at the table to leave, aside from beign rude it could lose the server some tip money and it could lose us a customer.
so if you have a half hour waiting list and there are people that have been sitting for an hour and a half or longer-everythhing is cleared off the table aside form the trash that was not on the plate-what do you do?
if the list is not that long then it is no problem but if there are a lot of people waiting then wouldnt you try nto to hold up the table too long? All the customers we get on busy days know we have a wait list becuase they were on it for some time. so if that was you sitting at our table on a busy day would you be so discourtous as to sit for two hours while there was a half hor waiting list we sure as heck hope not!
I find this topic an interesting one because when I was in Italy last summer, I was told time and time again about how different Italy is than America regarding meals. Dinner is a 3-hour event there. You eat many small courses and drink wine, and you socialize and linger for hours. It's actually really refreshing and relaxing. The waiter never even mentiones a bill or leaving; in fact, you practically have to hold a gun to their head to bring the bill so you can leave. In contrast, at many American restaurants, waiters often mnake me feel like as soon as I am done eating, I need to go. Sometimes I will be at a restaurant with a friend, catching up, and we may sit for quite a while after eating just talking. The waiter will usually come by several times to ask if we need anything else, but I know it is really to encourage us to free up the table. Granted, I don't need dinner to take 3 hours, but I also hate being rushed.
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