That’s cool. Unfortunately, due to legal reasons, most places will not do this. If a customer were to get sick from the food, the restaurant would be liable since it was served on their premises. In all the restaurants I worked in, it was made clear to us that no outside food was permitted, not only because it’s really rude, but also because we didn’t want to get sued if the customer gave themselves salmonella in their homemade pasta.
Thanks, sweet stuff. I’m having a pretty bad day, especially for Halloween, but you just helped make it better. You and your BOO bees!
((tdn)) Good. I hope things start to improve!
I understand that I am just a single man (or on occasion, a couple), and that I am not a foursome, and so not profitable. If a restaurant turned me away because of my low population density, I’d be unlikely to return, even with a big party. If I show up at a restaurant, I expect to be served and treated well. The thing is, I am never turned away. I guess I give off a “good customer” vibe, as if the hostess knows that I almost never have special requests, rush through my meals, and tip as though money were my personal cryptonite.
In fact the only time I recall being a pain in the ass was about 2 months ago when I sent a meal back. I phrased it as “Excuse me, I really don’t care for this, can I get something else?” when what I wanted to say was “This tastes like a used ashtray.” The waitress didn’t charge me for it. And she got a fantastic tip.
We really need a Valentine’s smiley.
The last time I ate in a nicer restaurant, we (a foursome) ordered an appetizer, two bottles of wine, two mixed drinks, and four entrees. Afterward, the waiter asked if we’d like coffee and dessert. We ordered one dessert and two coffees, which caused us to (gasp!) linger another half hour or so.
So, were WE being rude? Would it have been appropriate for the waiter to be annoyed because we were lingering? After all, people were waiting to be seated.
Face it, in terms of revenue, there is no difference between us lingering over coffee and another couple who didn’t order $250 worth of food lingering over coffee.
On a related note, would it be rude for a commissioned salesperson to refuse to wait on a customer who wanted to buy a battery for his Rolex because he’d risk pissing off a customer who came in to buy a Rolex?
Neither of these are analogous. Try again.
Analagous to what? It is either rude to linger over coffee when a restaurant is crowded or it’s not.
You keep telling yourself that.
You spent (let’s say) 2 hours eating, plus a half hour lingering over your coffee and dessert. At $250 for the table, that’s $100/hour for the use of the table.
Please show us how a couple drinking only coffee can produce sales of $100/hour for the same table.
I think what D_Odds is trying to say is that it simply isn’t the same thing.
Lingering over your coffee and dessert isn’t rude because you’ve already spent $300. You’re lingering over your upsell. Go to it. The restaurant has already made a couple hundred bucks from you, so they’re more than willing to let you linger. A person who’s just spending $1.50 on one coffee and lignering simlpy isn’t as important as they haven’t spent as much money.
As for retail stores, I don’t think I have to go over the big differences between retail stores and restaurants (Okay, one being that I can’t remember a time I’ve ever had to make a reservation to go to one, or that it’s expected you will spend money at a restaurant, whereas it is not expected you will necessarily do so when browsing a store, among about a zillion other differences) but suffice to say that example just isn’t a viable parallel to this situation.
Good Lord. I apologize, I’m generally better with typos than that.
Yes, but economically speaking there is no difference between us sitting there for 45 minutes while only ringing up an additional $12 and us leaving and another couple sitting down and ringing up $12 in that 45 minutes.
I hope that there are still some resteraunts that make an exception for this. One of my dad’s traditions was that when I and my siblings caught our first fish, we would celibrate the event at the nearest diner, and they never failed to not only prepare the fish for the kid, but to make a huge fuss over how big it was, are you going to be able to eat all that? etc.
Shame if that is no longer possible.
Rats! I hit “enter” too soon.
(continuing) And the reason I bring this up is that we have a very popular chain of restaurants in Cincinnati (Montgomery Inn, if you must know), that does make you feel bad for lingering. They have lightning fast service. The last time I was there they removed my salad plate before I’d finished in order to clear room for the ribs. I swear, their personal goal is to get you in and out of there in under an hour. And obviously the reason they do this is because they want to push you through. After all, the restaurant (and waitstaff) is hopping and the more people they push through the more money they make.
They do have dessert and coffee on the menu, yet you are presented with the bill without being asked if you’d like either. The implication is that they don’t WANT you to linger. At all. Even if you just paid $5 for a bottle of beer.
Which brings me to my original question: Is it rude for ANYONE linger over coffee if other people are waiting?
There’s a restaurant near here where a guy would bring in his own catch every single day, 365 days per year, for 20 or 30 years to this day, and they cook it for him. The folklore of that is as true today as when I first heard it 25 years ago.
Hey, that would be a great place for a Dopefest!
The restaurant doesn’t parse out the difference between when you were eating the expensive items and when you were sipping coffee at $2 a cup. You earn the right to linger over your dessert because you’re already a $250 sale to them. Which customer do you suppose they’re interested in keeping happy and coming back?
Petco has an ongoing promotion: Buy 10 bags of dog food, get one free. Should I be able to go in and ask for a free bag, because there’s “no difference economically” between giving a free bag to somebody who already spent $200 on dog food, and giving it to me? Of course there’s a difference.
Them what spends the money gets the privileges. That’s the whole point of business.
This reminds me of a bit from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry’s wife wanted to have a special evening out, so she suggested they go for drinks at X fancy place and then for dinner at Y fancy place. Larry couldn’t understand why they couldn’t have both drinks and dinner at the same place – they’re both fancy, they’re both nice, the ambience will be good. In the end, they just ordered in Chinese.
Customers aren’t always right. Or pleasant.
My husband and I were waiting in a restaurant lobby for a table. There was a party of six in line ahead of us. A table for two opened up, and the hostess beckoned to my husband and me. The six people in front of us immediately began shouting that this was unfair, that Mr. Montdore and I had arrived after them and should not be seated until they got a table. The hostess explained, nicely, that the table for two wouldn’t do them any good because six people couldn’t fit around it, and that the restaurant would lose money if any table stayed empty. Nonetheless, the party of six continued to yell.
When my husband and I tried to squeeze past them to enter the dining room, one of the six kicked me. I complained to the hostess, who summoned the manager, who listened to my story and threw all of them out.
Ok completely random but I hate it when waiters/waitresses refer to the restaurant they work in as if they own them and don’t just work there.