Not odd at all. I’ve done it with no problem. I think you just ran into a weird place. Their other policies sound weird, too.
Weird. We do it all the time, but I think we just tell the server and not the host. They want to sell shit, I want to buy it, so what’s the deal. I guess they need a sign that says Minimum Purchase Required or something tacky like that. Besides, I’ve always heard that dessert is one of higher markups on the menu. Is that true?
Not odd at all. In fact, I love going to drinks at one place, dinner at another and dessert at a third. Of course it’s hard to find the time for all that, which is why I want to become a kept man, but my wife is being a hard ass about it.
It’s not odd at all to go out for dessert… I’d suspect some other sort of shitty scenario (eg. they didn’t like how you were dressed, your ethnicity, etc.) was going on and they were just being jerks.
The primary goal of any restaurant is to make money. This restaurant is shooting themselves in the foot with an idiotic policy such as this.
Not unusual. When I was much younger I used to go with my parents to rstaurants for dessert and a drink (soda, in my case) after movies.
As noted, there are restaurants which specialize in dessert and coffee. In Boston, there’s the appropriately-named Finale, for instance.
I don’t understand why there aren’t more coffee-and-dessert places, particularly in nightlife districts or suburban “lifestyle centers” near the cineplex. A related issue is why American bakeries seem to be entirely focused on the doughnut-cookie-birthday cake world, unwilling to make good bread, savory meat pies, or warm desserts, and close up tight at 3 pm.
In my experience, slightly odd. I don’t remember ever seeing somebody just order coffee and dessert in a proper restaurant. Diners and coffee shops, yes, or places like Denny’s or Big Boy, which are basically chain diners anyway. I wouldn’t balk at the suggestion, necessarily, but I don’t usually order desserts and rarely drink coffee after midday.
Doesn’t seem odd to me at all. Before the baby, my date night with the wife would be dinner, movie/show/concert, then coffee for me and dessert for her.
One of my favorite things to do is to go to the Melting Pot in town just for the chocolate fondue dessert and coffee menu, but I have done this a lots of places. Even when I waited tables, a late table that just wanted dessert and coffee would not bother me as long as it wasn’t taking up my tables during the busy times and the people didn’t sit there for hours chatting.
I use to work at an Italian restaurant that had wonderful desserts and a few expresso drinks. It wasn’t often but on occasion people would come in just for dessert and coffee. This was a nice family owned place too. Pricy menu, large wine list and so on. No Denny’s that’s for sure.
I couldn’t agree more!
Not odd at all. The manager was an idiot. “Only serve dinner?” Oh bullshit.
I worked at a high end restaurant some years back, and the manager would not accommodate people for just dessert and coffee. I thought him a bit unreasonable, in this scenario, but, he pointed out that he had to keep a new/clean linen tablecloth for each customer, not to mention his other expenses, etc…for such a low profit margin.
The wording of this post, helped to give me some perspective. One doesn’t go to a proper restaurant for a snack.
Well, if one does, it isn’t unreasonable to be refused.
Its a not uncommon policy to have at fairly upscale restaurants in tourist spots. They usually don’t have a problem getting the restaurant fairly full for mealtimes, and what they don’t want is you swinging through the local In and Out Burger for your meal, then spending two hours splitting a $12 dessert and two $4 cups of coffee. They also don’t want it to get out that you can do that - and the internet becomes a source of “want to do vacation cheap but still eat at the frou frou spots” advice. So turning down the 9pm guest is done because they don’t want the place filled with desert eaters at 7pm. In addition, there are the associated linen costs.
We have friends who run a restaurant who won’t seat you for dessert. They are full to the brim most nights from open to close with people who will spend $100 a person on dinner. They don’t have room for someone swinging through for dessert. They used to - back when they were starting out - but they just can’t now if they are going to make enough money while they are popular to be able to fund their next venture - restaurants tend to have a short half life.
However, you can usually get seated in the bar at such a place where they are usually happy to send the dessert menu over.
Here in Vegas? Hmm…there are some upscale restaurants that have some policies most would find odd, but they are usually more able and willing to make occasional exceptions, as in your case.
For instance, in some of the high-end restaurants, they do frown on people taking up an entire table for just coffee and ice tea. I think you would agree that would be a “fair” rule - especially if it were for a busy time where they could make far more money with people waiting in line to really have dinner.
I think the problem is you were treating this restaurant more as a “cafe”, for just dessert and coffee, and they felt they were a dinner establishment that required ordering a full dinner.
The other problem is this was Las Vegas - and like most tourist locations, they have seen it all and don’t like people screwing around with the point of their business; think of 5 people showing up, one ordering a salad and ice tea (that person was hungry but on a diet) and the other four (maybe a bit tipsy already) just ordering a beer and nothing to eat. Most restaurants would be sort of pissed about that. Plus, they don’t really rely on repeat business (like most tourist locales) and thus don’t care if you were pissed off.
Still, a good manager would have politely explained that this was not their normal policy - but at least given a nod and wink (considering the time of day and lack of business) and allowed you to make this exception.
Near the same time of table occupation? How do you figure that? Desert never takes as much time as the meal. What’s the big deal? The answer is all about service. One table at a restaurant, even in rush hour, serving a dessert only meal to the patrons, is best done with good service. I’m sure the OP will think twice about giving that restaurant repeat business or recommending it to anyone else. Personally speaking when I’ve gone to a restaurant and either didn’t order anything (when the rest of my party did) or if we ended up staying a long time, I’ve always tipped to make it worth their while. In other words, my being there didn’t “cost” the wait-person anything.
ETA: Oh, and to answer the OP’s question. I think you already know the answer… “It depends.” Some restaurants are certainly more apropos for a dessert only visit; some not so much. Cheesecake factory, has a good menu; but don’t balk at all if you go in just for dessert. 
Billy Bob’s Steak House may raise an eyebrow.
It does sound odd, especially since you were coming in later at night when they probably had a fairly empty restaurant, but as others have said, not all restaurants are the same.
I’ve always heard that, too - dessert and drinks are nothing but profit. Even when you factor in a server’s wage, they’re not doing a lot of extra effort for a dessert and coffee table, and if they’re getting paid to be there until 10 anyway, it doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. Now, if you sit and nurse your coffees for hours and keep the staff there after closing time, that would be a different story, but I don’t imagine jsgoddess and her party were going to do that.
So staff can stand around with their thumbs up their bums for an hour until closing, or they can serve a table of coffee and desserts and make a bit of money for the restaurant and some tips for themselves. I know which one I’d take. Plus, there’s the psychological effect of an empty restaurant - I think having people in a restaurant makes other people want to come in.
It can - and my guess is that it often would in a hotel restaurant. About the only times I go somewhere for coffee and dessert is when I am on a trip with a group of people. We’re only partially going for the coffee and dessert. Mostly we’re going to hang out and the hotel rooms aren’t suitable for that - too small, not enough seating.
I don't think its at all odd to go out for coffee and dessert- but I don't think I've ever seen it except at a diner , diner-type restaurant (Perkins, Dennys, IHOP) or [places like this](http://www.ferraracafe.com/nyc/)
You don’t imagine **jsgoddess **and her party doing that, but, what did the manager imagine? No easy thing for him.
Also, management may very well have sent home a good part of the waitstaff. One hour till closing and few customers? Probably most of them *were *gone. The remaining waitstaff may be there for the dinner-not-dessert customers. Servers may be nice to customers, but, they can give managers some grief.
Management base what they do not on our models of propriety, sitting in the comfort of our wherever-we-do-our-Doping-sites, but on the numbers that they have to crunch. Oh, and the empty restaurant wasn’t empty because of the psychological effect of an empty restaurant-it was empty because nobody was going to be there, except for jsgoddess and her crew. The manager knows what his demographic is.
Of course, being short with visitors is a dipshit thing to do, but, I don’t think that the other is necessarily a poor management thing.