I am a very slow eater who likes to read when I’m eating. I can take an hour to eat a simple cheese sandwich.
As long as there are not people waiting on line to sit down, I think it’s okay.
I’ll chime in and agree with those who say that it’s fine if the place is no more than half full. You’re not really tying up a table that would otherwise generate tips for the waiter, and you make the place look a little bit busier than it otherwise would.
But… if your extended sojourn happens to overlap with a period that your waiter could have sat someone else at that table (i.e. their section is full), then it’s incumbent on you to up your tip to the point where they don’t lose money on that table relative to if you had just gone and left in a normal time frame.
Of course, in my experience as a bus-boy, the wait staff will eventually quit refilling your drink and start asking you if you are ready to pay/need help with it, if you’re starting to wear out your welcome.
You’re fine. What I don’t like is people who go to Starbucks solo and buy a $4 coffee then camp out on a table for 4 with their laptop for 3-4 hours.
Yeah, I think that crosses a line, but then such behavior doesn’t appeal to me anyway so I’m probably biased. But just going to a restaurant with friends and family and taking the time to enjoy the experience? If you are there, sitting on the table for many hours, ordering nothing but just sitting and talking, while there is a huge line, well, THAT might be a bit out of line, but for normal dinning experience where you talk, order, eat, then talk some more.
Another vote that as long as the restaurant isn’t busy and you’re not taking a table that other people coming in would need (like a big table), I don’t see the harm.
I would ask the wait staff what they think about you hanging out when it’s not busy. If they say give a positive answer then maybe they’re telling the truth and maybe they’re being nice (lying.) But if they give you any sort of negative/wishy-washy answer then you can rethink things.
You’re fine as long as the restaurant has other seating. But you should tip more. You’re getting more service out of the server than you’d get in 15 minutes.
I don’t think that this issue is just for single people. Every few months, 6 to 8 of my women friends meet up for dinner at a local restaurant. We try to go early (6pm) and also try to pick restaurants that aren’t hopping busy…for their sake and ours because it’s hard to hear over the din of a crowded restaurant.
Few of my friends drink anything other than water, and we like to sit and chat well before dinner and well after dinner. A 3 hour stay is not uncommon. I realize that all of this might add up to a major disappointment for waitstaff, so I usually compensate them for their missed revenue by doubling my tip.
The only exception was several years ago when we met at a local Bravo restaurant. The waitress was hostile from the second she saw it was a group of women. She took our order and delivered our food, but never once asked if everything was okay, or ever ventured over to refill the empty water glasses. Worse, those of us who paid cash actually had to hunt her down in order to get our change back because she disappeared after taking our money. When the manager found her, she said, “Sorry, I assumed that none of you wanted change.”
My bill was $12 and I’d given her a $20.
Now, on a normal night out, I’d have cheerfully given her the entire $8, but not that night.
That’s pretty much what I was going to say. It’s OK to be a “camper” when the restaurant is not busy, especially if you’re a regular. My husband and I have been regulars at same cafe for over 30 years, and they treat us like family. Even so, when it’s busy we would never abuse their hospitality by hogging a table for hours.
I used to do this a lot, but when I did I always had a minimum for the tip and it wasn’t a percentage but an amount. I’ll put it this way, I wasn’t one of those guys who left $1.88 on a $10.12 check and thought I was being generous because it was over 15%. When it’s just me and a small check, tips 60% and up and possibly over 100% are the norm.
At least in Chicago, I’ve noticed they’ve removed most of the seating from the Starbucks that have been remodelled lately. I assume it’s to prevent the camping and also to be able to display the bags of packaged coffee and other things to improve those sales.
I used to camp at a coffee place while in college, but that was pretty common among students in the afternoons. They usually had music or speakers at night so wasn’t a study place then.
I think my answer depends on your definition of what a “decent” tip is.
If I lingered for an hour and a half, I’d leave a 20 at least.
I voted ‘other’ for reasons already explained in other posts.
Sometimes it’s not about how full the restaurant is, it’s about taking a table away from an individual server. People will continue to be seated in other server’s areas meaning lost money for your server because you won’t move. It definitely is an opportunity to leave a bigger tip. If you’re by yourself at a 4-top; you’re potentially taking a lot of money off the table for a server.
Mostly, I’d say follow what is taught in a defensive driving course… go with the flow. If the restaurant is busy and people need to get in an out, then that’s probably not the right time to hook up the old laptop and sip on a latte for a couple of hours.
I don’t hang around the bathroom when I’m done in there, I don’t hang around the restaurant when I’m done eating either.
Having worked a good number of years as a waiter, albeit mostly in upper-market restaurants, my attitude towards this is that restaurants are a service industry.
In my country waiting staff were either unpaid (illegal but common) or paid a pittance, so we relied on tips for 90 to 100% of our pay.
Nonetheless, in a service industry the customer is king. I would offer precisely the same (high) standard of service to someone who sat nursing a coffee for a few hours as to someone who came in and ordered a 5 course meal. And I would have no complaints to make about either customer.
When Grandma was living at the Old Folks’ Home, we’d often go out to the small cafe across the boulevard. And I mean small: three tables inside, five outside.
One time we apologized because we’d spent a couple of hours there playing dominoes for the prize of three coffees, two sodas and two pastries for three people (the dominoes were ours). The owner said “no problem, you’re publicity! People see that you play dominoes and ask if I have another set. They sometimes sit down saying ‘those people are playing dominoes, this bar won’t have tourist prices.’ So now I have dominoes, Spanish cards, foreign cards and backgammon!”
Given that you’re attentive to how many other people are around, I see nothing wrong with the behavior described, Alpha Twit.
I would say you’re perfectly fine, although a bump in tip would be nice, especially if the wait staff is periodically checking on you, getting water, coffee, etc. It still takes time from their other duties, even if you don’t need anything.
I concur, you are fine.
As to having customers in a diner to attracting other customers, I have a true story.
One snowy day in Portland Oregon, my new bride & I were feeling too lazy to cook breakfast, so we decided to eat out. Keep in mind it does not snow very often in Portland, thus folks just do not leave the house if at all possible when it does.
We decided to take her Willys pickup as it has four wheel drive. We drove around to all of the diners that we usually frequent, but they were all either closed due to snow, or they were packed with long lines.
Since I was driving, she was the one looking for a new-to-us eatery. At around 9:00, she spotted a “Grand Opening” sign on the facade of a small diner. There were absolutely no, read that none, zero cars in the large parking lot. When I pulled in, my tracks were the only tracks in the 4" of snow. I parked front & center to the door. I doubted that they were really open as no one was sitting at any of the tables & there were no tracks leading up to the door.
When I tried the door it was open, so like any newly married man, I went back & opened the pickup door for my bride, & escorted her to the diner. We were greeted by an anxious hostess who seated us up next to the picture window where we has a front row seat to the chaos of Portlanders who were driving in the snow for the first time in their lives.
We got the best service we have ever gotten before or since. After we arrived the customers came in in droves. pretty soon the place was packed with a long line. The food was great & our service was exceptional.
After we were done eating, we started to get up to pay up. Both the manager & our official waitress came over and told us to stay as long as we wanted to. It turned out that they had opened at 6:00 & we were their first customers. For three hours they had sat at a back table waiting on their first customer. We were a welcome sight.
The parking lot was empty since the staff all had parked out back so that the customers would have plenty of parking. We figured that no one came thinking that the empty paring lot indicated that the place was closed, like so many businesses do in Portland when it snows.
Our meal was on the house, as we were their first customers. I would like to say we frequented them often, but we could not find it for many months. It looked a lot different with a full parking lot free of snow.
When we found it again, we were literally moving out of Portland & both the Willys & the Ford were filled with our worldly belongings. The manager & the hostess both remembered us. That meal was also on the house. They said that we were their saviors as they were about to throw in the towel after three hours with no customers. After we came, the town “discovered” them & they had stayed very busy ever since.
They shared that when I turned around after trying the door, they thought that they had lost the first folks to try the door. The entire staff was overjoyed when I opened the Willys door for my new bride. They mentioned that they were impressed that I still opened doors for her. Heck, 35 years later, I still open doors for her.
Given your caveat, I think you’re golden. Places that don’t want you to linger shouldn’t have bottomless coffee.
Looking at the pictures, that is my kind of place. You have good taste.
Well, thank you kindly. I wouldn’t say I have good taste but I certainly know what I like. Simple breakfast fare, well prepared, is a good way to start the day.