# What do restaurant closing times mean?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 23, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145 "2013-02-23T03:22:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/1 "2013-02-23T03:22:24Z")
If a restaurant has a sign saying they close at 10:00, what does that mean to you?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/2 "2013-02-23T03:25:39Z")
To me it means that’s when they ask you to leave. Shutting down the kitchen (or turning off the grill) comes before that.
The only problem with my thinking is no one knows exactly when “before” is.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/3 "2013-02-23T03:28:57Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:1, topic:651145”]
If a restaurant has a sign saying they close at 10:00, what does that mean to you?
[/QUOTE]
To me, it means I’d better be out the door by 9:59. So if it’s full table service, I wouldn’t step in after 9:15, and I wouldn’t order the Peking Duck.
But I spent many a frustrating night remopping a section I thought safe to mop at 9:45 on a slow night, only to have to redo it when people came in and ordered at 9:55. While I know most owners won’t let the staff turn people away, I have too much compassion to do that to anyone.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/4 "2013-02-23T03:32:01Z")
To me it means that the kitchen closes at 10:00 and you’d better be there well in advance of 10:00 if you want food.
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### Author:  [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/5 "2013-02-23T03:44:25Z")
It means get out the door by 10 so the staff can finish cleaning up and go home.
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/6 "2013-02-23T03:55:41Z")
In my experience, WhyNot has the right of it. The kitchen shuts down before the dining area. A person who walks in at 9:30 might be asked if they were looking for dessert only as hot food is no longer available.
There are exceptions to this, but it often depends on the personality of the manager/cook. In a combination bar & grill, you might find that the kitchen shuts down 2-3 hours before closing time.
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### Author:  [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/7 "2013-02-23T04:16:54Z")
It means they’ll be mopping or vacuuming under your feet, and there will be no food after about 9, in my experience
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### Author:  [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/8 "2013-02-23T04:22:43Z")
Every restaurant I’ve ever worked in, it meant if you walked in the door before that time, you got seated and served. I would never, ever do that as a customer to restaurant staff, though.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/9 "2013-02-23T04:54:00Z")
> [@Anamorphic](#):
>
> Every restaurant I’ve ever worked in, it meant if you walked in the door before that time, you got seated and served. I would never, ever do that as a customer to restaurant staff, though.
When I worked in a restaurant, that’s what it meant. And, just like Anamorphic, I would never do it.
If none of the owners were there (they lived next door), then the bartender wouldn’t have a problem telling the people we were closed. If the owner or manager (owner’s brother-in-law) were there, however, we had to smile and serve, and some of those people loved lingering over their coffee!
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/10 "2013-02-23T04:55:33Z")
It means whatever the restaurant wants it to mean, on that particular evening that you come in. A smart restaurant owner will make sure no one ever gets turned away. Your options may be limited, they may push you to get in and out in hurry, and there’s always the chance that at any place they just have to get closed up and out at the specified closing time. And then there are the restaurants that just stop serving at some particular time, which may be before the posted closing time.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/11 "2013-02-23T05:16:10Z")
In my opinion, it means that the restaurant is prepared to accept and serve customers who come in up to 10 PM. In practice, this may not be true.
Personally, if I was aware that a restaurant posted a closing time of 10 PM, I probably wouldn’t enter after 9:30 out of consideration for the staff.
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### Author:  [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/12 "2013-02-23T20:08:28Z")
That’s interesting. When I worked in restaurants it always meant the least popular answer here. If you walk in before that time we would have to seat you, and as a cook I would have to hang around waiting for you to order and hold-off on cleanup.
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### Author:  [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/13 "2013-02-23T20:12:03Z")
My impression was that you can walk out the door after 10:00, but you must place your order before 10:00. But after you have placed your order, they can still cook the meal after 10:00, and you may receive it at 10:30 if it’s a busy day, and then eat until 10:45 - 11:00.
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### Author:  [@the\_apples\_fell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_apples_fell)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/14 "2013-02-23T20:12:40Z")
To me it means that you have to be out of there by the closing time. To expect to be seated and served ten minutes before closing time is selfish. The workers want to go home too.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/15 "2013-02-23T20:17:16Z")
I find out the restaurant’s interpretation when I make my reservations.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/16 "2013-02-23T20:23:45Z")
We usually eat dinner before 6 pm, but if the posted closing time is 10 I would expect to be able to walk in, sit down and be served any time up to 10 pm. I also expect that if I tried to pull that shit at 9:55, the staff would be lining up to spit in my food.
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### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/17 "2013-02-23T20:24:22Z")
I have no idea what it means, and I am now more sure than ever that it means different things at different restaurants. What I have never been able to figure out is why restaurants insist on posting a “closing time” rather than a "last seating time " or some such thing. Laundromats don’t post closing times - they post “last wash” times.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2013, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/18 "2013-02-23T20:57:53Z")
I answered “The doors close at 10:00. You’d better be done with your meal by then” because I, as a customer, wouldn’t _assume_ it meant anything else. I realize it might, at the restaurant’s discretion, mean any of the listed options; but even so, staying later might well be inconveniencing the restaurant’s employees, so I would try to be out the door by 10:00 unless there was a good reason why I couldn’t (or, maybe, unless there were a lot of other people still there, too).
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/19 "2013-02-24T00:23:50Z")
Wow. Not the responses I expected.
My personal experience with working in restaurants dates back to McDonald’s in high school, and back then if you were on closing shift you were expected to be there a good hour after the doors were closed and locked. Obviously, that’s different from a typical sit-down restaurant because the food takes longer than four minutes to cook.
I started this thread because I got in a conversation with someone about it. A restaurant that’s just open for lunch had a closing time posted as 2:00. At 1:45, I wanted to stop for food, and they said we shouldn’t go in that close to closing. That seems weird to me.
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### Author:  [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-restaurant-closing-times-mean/651145/20 "2013-02-24T01:05:55Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:19, topic:651145”]
Wow. Not the responses I expected.
My personal experience with working in restaurants dates back to McDonald’s in high school, and back then if you were on closing shift you were expected to be there a good hour after the doors were closed and locked. Obviously, that’s different from a typical sit-down restaurant because the food takes longer than four minutes to cook.
I started this thread because I got in a conversation with someone about it. A restaurant that’s just open for lunch had a closing time posted as 2:00. At 1:45, I wanted to stop for food, and they said we shouldn’t go in that close to closing. That seems weird to me.
[/QUOTE]
I hate to say this, but be glad they turned you away. Better to not serve you than to serve you angrily.
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