"Asking to leave..."

Question:

Is it understandable , other than a party being unruly, for an owner/manger to ask persons to leave because "they have a business to run" and "need to turn over the table"?

If the party has stayed past its "allotted" time and another party is reserved for the same table?

Has anyone ever encountered such situation or been involved in the past? As a customer or manager/owner?

I always try to be mindful of the situation if there are people waiting for a table, especially in smaller, independently owned restaurants as turning the tables is critical to the success of the business. If a restaurant isn't particularly busy and we do linger after a meal, I always try to leave an especially generous tip as our sitting there has potentially kept the server from getting another table. While I have never been asked to vacate a table at an independently owned restaurant, my friends and I did have this experience once at a major "upscale" chain restaurant. This was right around Christmas and they were busy; however, we had made reservations for what they knew was to be a birthday celebration. We arrived on time, but still had to wait to be seated. No one in our group of six had cocktails or wine, but we did spend quiet lavishly on several appetizers and our entrees. Within 5 or 10 minutes of finishing our meals, just as we had declined the server's offer of dessert, the manager came over and said they needed our table for another party. No one said anything and we got up to leave immediately, but he could tell we were not pleased from the overwhelming silence. He then back-tracked and apologized for the inconvenience and invited us to move to the bar for complimentary drinks. We politely declined, paid our bill, and left. As you might imagine, have not returned.

Obviously the answer is "It depends".

A year or so ago I had reservations for a large party at an upscale local restaurant. We had about 10 of us. We arrived on time and were told we would be seated as soon as the party in front of us was done. So we sat. And they sat. They were not only done eating, but had paid and were sitting at a completely clean threesome of tables. Half of the group had left, but 6 of them were still jabbering at each other and on their phones. No plates. No drinks. No nothing.

And we waited more. And more. The servers kept prodding them to go with "Can we get you anything else?" type questions but they wouldn't move.

Finally, we agreed to split up our group so we could be seated. They offending party sat for another 30 minutes after that (an hour and 15 minutes total) just chatting away, oblivious to the 20+ people waiting for tables and the fact that they had pretty much ruined the evening for our group as we were now seated at separate tables.

IMO, the servers and managers did not do enough to get those rude SOBs the **** out of the restaurant.

How self centered do you have to be to do that?

Now... anything less than 15 minutes after you are done, paid, cleared and finished is pushing it in asking you to leave provided they were fast in getting your order / food / drinks etc. If the service is slow and them I'm asked to leave as soon as I'm done eating, I'd be more than a little upset.

But if you fail to provide enough courtesy to both the business owner and your fellow patrons and decide you have somehow earned the right to take up a table for an unreasonable amount of time in a busy and crowded restaurant, then yes.... the owner has every right to ask you to get out in whatever manner they see fit.

To be honest... the whole "the customer is always right" thing is a pile of sh*t. The customer isn't always right,in fact the customer is often a self absorbed jack ass. If you're the kind of dip**** who would do that... I would think the place would be better off not having you as a customer and taking up their tables.

If you want a long leisurely meal with no end... go on a weeknight. Tuesday would be good.

I heart Chris M.

Honestly it is a debatable situation, with different times of appropriateness. The really frustrating situations are when you try to fit people in due to upcoming reservations, and tell them, that: "Yes, I can seat you, but I will need the table in an hour and a half, so as long as you are up by 7:30 then I can seat you immediately" And then they get mad when you need the table later, even though they were warned. Happens a lot more than you might think. I definitely respect my hostess, she deals with that stuff all the time and does an amazing job.

Whether or not you do ask a party to leave is up to opinion, I have no qualms about it.

However, being rude about it is not.

When I was traveling through France it was pretty much SOP for the manager/owner to not just ask, but to TELL people it was time for them to leave. Once while my brother and I were waiting for a table we overheard the owner as she went up to the table, started bussing off the glassware and loudly used a french word I wasn't familiar with. My brother laughed out loud. When I asked what she had said my brother said she pretty much told the table to "SCRAM!"

I try to be mindful of the length of time I spend at a table whether there's a wait or whether it's near closing but you might be surprised at the vast number of people that have no cares what so ever if they inconvenience others or not. (Knowingly or unknowingly). We live in a society that thinks so much of themselves that they feel the need to Twitter every move they make as if the world is waiting with gasping anticipation of their every thought or move. Manners are becoming passe'. (Or am I sounding too much like my grandmother?)

When I was traveling through France it was pretty much SOP for the manager/owner to not just ask, but to TELL people it was time for them to leave. Once while my brother and I were waiting for a table we overheard the owner as she went up to the table, started bussing off the glassware and loudly used a french word I wasn't familiar with. My brother laughed out loud. When I asked what she had said my brother said she pretty much told the table to "SCRAM!"

I try to be mindful of the length of time I spend at a table whether there's a wait or whether it's near closing but you might be surprised at the vast number of people that have no cares what so ever if they inconvenience others or not. (Knowingly or unknowingly). We live in a society that thinks so much of themselves that they feel the need to Twitter every move they make as if the world is waiting with gasping anticipation of their every thought or move. Manners are becoming passe'. (Or am I sounding too much like my grandmother?)

OK, manners are gone in this world, that's for sure. My dear Grandmother would not let this happen in the least. I take her lead almost daily!

Logically considerate? Most definatly! Being mindful of what's going on in the environ is a must.

Dining environments differ in regions of the world. Some people would freak out if the notion of allowing pets to sit beside a table while others ate.

Dining environments differ in regions of the world. Some people would freak out if the notion of allowing pets to sit beside a table while others ate.

Good lord, I don't know why? I do it all the time....have all my life. Now I don't feed them at the table (although they would LOVE it), but they have been know to be "underfoot" while dining.

I just observed this last week.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8854#p93206

Actually had this happen yesterday (Mothers Day) for Brunch. Had a twenty top sit for approximately 1 hour after they had finished eating/drinking etc. That represents almost 1/3 of our dining room. I'm fairly sure the servers didn't ask them to leave, but they did start to do a hardcore clearing of the table etc, until they got the point. Normally we wouldn't care, but we had 5 tables, trying to celebrate mothers day, standing in our foyer. They all had reservations and deserved to sit and eat too.

The opportunity to notify guests about their time limit is when they're seated. If it's not done then, the chance is lost, they stay as long as they want, and if they linger beyond expectation it's nobody's fault. Restaurants should take advantage of this and not bemoan an indulgent group for paying attn to each other and not the wait list when they have not been asked in advance to keep it quick. I haven't had much trouble with this in my recollect. I've had to quote time limits in my tenure as a hostess or mgr to many many groups and occasionally have had to remind them, but I always got the feeling that they understood, because they were told and always given about 15 minutes past the time they were initially alloted.

Jackie, my thoughts exactly, from my experience as a hostess.

I think it's acceptable for an owner or manager to not seat a party or ask them to leave if they brought in outside food.

I think it's acceptable for an owner or manager to not seat a party or ask them to leave if they brought in outside food.

Nice!