Yay! Exams are over! [cue popping corks, confettis, noisemakers and party horns] Mr. Hawk and I ventured out for a celebratory meal and chose a small cafe with a dozen or so outside tables and another half dozen inside (empahsis on small, here). The way this place was set up, you stood in line, placed your order at the counter, found a seat and when they called you, went up and paid and collected your food.
We got on line, placed our order, collected our drinks and turned to look for a seat. There was only one free table, which had a set of keys on it. Now, there had been several free tables when we arrived and we could have thrown our keys on one of them, but I don’t think that’s appropriate. So we sat at the table with the keys. Immediately, a guy three or four back in line says belligerently, “Those are my keys!”
“There’s no where else to sit,” replied Mr. Hawk mildly.
“You can have them back,” I said, pushing them across the table and smiling sweetly.
He grabbed them and fumed back into line, remarking loudly to his companions about how rude and mean we were. The celebratory atmosphere was becoming distinctly clouded and I said as much to the Hawk. He concurred and went to the register to pay for our drinks and cancel our order. As he did, Mr. Keys plopped himself down in the vacated seat. I am sure he was prepared for a battle royal, so I hope he wasn’t too disappointed when Mr. Hawk returned and said “Have a nice evening.”
“Enjoy your meal,” I added. And we left. And went and had a very nice meal somewhere else.
So… were we out of line “swiping” the table he was saving? Or was he out of line, trying to claim it to begin with? Opinions welcome.
I think he was out of line. Although I’d think that of anyone who plops their keys on a table. Good God, how can you trust that no one would swipe them when you’re standing in line?
I’d be much more understandable if there was a party of two (or more), and one person actually sat at the table while the others stood in line.
Saving a table is rude because you don’t need a table while you’re standing in line. People who have their food need a table.
There’s a cafeteria where we sometimes eat (only when we can’t avoid it, believe me) that’s horribily disorganized and ridiculously over-crowded, so that you can easily spend twenty minutes to half an hour in line. After finally getting your food, you then get to try to find a table, many of which are “occupied” by people’s bookbags.
We have no qualms about moving people’s bookbags and taking their tables. The table is not there to hold up their bookbag. They do not have a god-given right to have a table waiting for them when they’re done, while other people have to wait around for place to sit to open up.
I have this fantasy where I go through their bookbags and take their textbooks and fancy-ass calculators and sell them on e-bay. Instead, I usually content myself with smiling sweetly at them when the come to collect their bags and give us a dirty look–if they actually make it through the line before we’re done eating, which often doesn’t happen. The arrogance of tying up a table for twenty minutes just to be sure that you have a spot waiting for you is just staggering.
taichi, it was a table-for-two and Mr. Keys was accompanied, so sharing wasn’t possible. Would it have been okay if we had saved a table for ourselves and the people in front of us in line had nowhere to sit? Mr. Keys would probably have missed out, too, since he was behind us. I just don’t think it’s fair for people who don’t need the table to take it ahead of people who do. That said, if some of his party had chosen to sit at the table and let one person do their ordering, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. But there’s an audacity in throwing your keys down and expecting everyone else to be soooo impressed by your virtual presence that they evaporate into thin air.
Mr. Keys is a hoser. Either that, or everyone in the world failed to get the memo that you can hold a spot in a cafeteria-style cafe before you get your food. Obviously, you don’t live in Paradise Sparrow.
I think the only truly acceptable way to save a table is to leave a person there. If you’re not willing to give up a hostage, you don’t have a right to the table.
There’s a small chain here called “Noodles” that posts signs that table saving is forbidden. Order your food first, then find a table. Makes sense to me.
Both etiquette and logical common sense were breached by Mr. Bow-To-The-Power-Of-My-Keys.
Etiquette in such a situation would require people to wait their turn, although, as mentioned, if someone actually sat at the table while the other person was waiting to order, that would make a difference.
Common sense says that seating in a restaurant or cafe rotates. By the time Mr. Keys had ordered, there may have been another table open, and why should you have to wait when you’ve already ordered and he hasn’t? When everyone has to wait their turn, that’s fair.
Common sense also says that leaving keys on a table does not reserve that table. I thought this was going to be a story about someone who had previously sat at that table and mistakenly left their keys on it. Such an assumption on your part was not extreme.
You and the tall bearded man did the right thing by avoiding a dust-up, cancelling your order and going elsewhere. Hope you had a good time!
I’m with Giraffe. If he wanted to save the table, either he or his companion should have been sitting at it.
Furthermore, leaving one’s keys unattended like that strikes me as a less than stunningly brilliant thing to do. Hey look, a key ring with a Lexus key fob! Shall we see which Lexus in the parking lot it fits? Hell, all you have to do is push the alarm button and you know which car it goes to.
(note: I am not in any way shape or form condoning stealing cars, even from jerks. But it can happen, and probably does)
I have a thing about getting in line for food/service/tickets/whatever. The purpose of the line is to make sure people are attended to in turn, sequentially. First in, first out. It’s fair.
The same principle applies to seating in a cafeteria of this type. You get in line - that gives you a certain priority level, relative to the people in front of, and behind you. We all start at the lowest priority level, at the back of the line, and eventually become priority number one when we are at the front of the line.
People who try to circumvent this FIFO queue irritate the bejeezus out of me. By joining a queue, you are acknowledging the unwritten rule, which is that you shall be patient and your turn will come. Everyone in that line has to wait for food, or a table, or whatever. Why should you be any more important than people who have waited longer?
To hell with that. Sparrowhawk, you shoulda kicked that guy in the nuts.
You guys are great. I feel so… so… vindicated. snif
It was tempting to get into a knock-down, drag-out argument with this guy. Retreating was a refusal to let him ruin our whole evening rather than a concession to his spurious claim. Plus, I like to go for out-classing lowlife scum, even if it’s unlikely that they’ll get the point.
When I was in college, kids would do the “my keys are holy and will keep you from sitting at this table!!” thing in the dining hall all the time. The thing that caought me as amazingly trusting/stupid of them was that at least a third of the place-saving items were keyrings with wallets attatched! These kids not only left the keys to their rooms and cars unattended, they also trusted that no one would take their student IDs, driver’s licenses, cash or credit cards! I know a lot of kids from rural, perhaps more naive backgrounds went to the University of Missouri, but I think these kids must have been raised on mars or something.
When I go to Starbucks, there are never enough outside patio tables for all the Evil Smokers…so people are always leaving their purses/wallets/keys on the tables as they wait for their Flippity Flappity Frapuccino Thingies to be concocted inside.
I drink Normal, Unadulterated Drip Coffee…so naturally mine is ready way before theirs, regardless of when I get there.
If they’ve “claimed” the only remaining table, I have a routine.
Grab purse/wallet/keys, run inside, and go, “Oh my God! I think someone left this behind! Do you guys have a lost and found? This is so awful! I hope they come back quickly! This could have been STOLEN!”
Usually, whoever left the item steps forward and says, “Oh! Er…that’s mine, actually…”
“Oh, thank God!” I say. “Here you go!”
Usually, they don’t have the cajones to say anything further, because they’d look horribly selfish and ungracious, so I get the table and manage to avoid any fracas.
(And on the occasions when they DON’T step forward, because they’re not paying attention, it goes into the lost and found for real, and teaches them a lesson.)
That’s what I would have done with Mr. Keys-On-The-Table. I would have taken the keys to a manager-type preson and said someone left them by “accident.”
Table saving is rude. And if a place takes a long time to go through the line, having his companion wait at the table wouldn’t have been helpful because they would have gotten their food at different times.
When we go to the mall and the Food Court is packed, we find a table first, and my husband and I take turns getting food for the kids and ourselves.
I would never leave my purse or my keys unattended on the table. (I leave my kids there instead )
That’s a different scenario than the OP. Because the tables serve multiple food stalls, each with its own line, I consider the seating area a free-for-all, take-em-if-you-can zone. Especially if everybody’s loaded down with tons of Giftmas purchases, to the point where it’d be downright dangerous to carry a tray of hot food along with the stores’ bags and boxes.
Back to the OP… One restaurant, one seating area, one line. Send a person to save a table. Keys, backpacks, etc. don’t count.
Saw a movie last weekend with 7 friends, arriving in 3 groups. 4 of us got to the theater 30 minutes early and staked out 8 seats together. As the theater filled up, other people would ask “Are those seats taken?”, we would say “Yes, they are”, they’d say “Ok”, and look for seats elsewhere. 2 more of our friends showed up about 10 minutes before the film start time. At 5 minutes til, the last couple had still not showed, the theater was almost full, so the next people who asked got those seats. Not 30 seconds later, the last 2 of our group came in. Doh! They found somewhere else to sit.
I was struck by how cool people were about recognizing the saved seat custom early on. But we were not willing to hold empty space right into the start of the movie (well, previews … and &*%$#! commercials). Up to a point the system works fine, but everyone knew the movie was probably gonna sell out, and when it gets down to the wire, I’d expect trying to save the last seats would border on rudeness. Our last 2 friends could have been a bit more prompt if they were keen to sit in the dark with us.
Keys, backpacks, booby traps, whatever, on a table is fine when other patrons still have options (of course, it’s not usually as necessary in those cases). But when resources get tight, civilized people will cooperate by doing the queue thing. Those few who don’t are being rude and deserve the contempt they get
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