In a nearly empty restaurant, do NOT sit next to someone else

Not so fast bro wrote:

This happens far too often and needs to be stopped.

If you walk into a restaurant and there are only one or two other diners (singles or couples), do not ever sit at the table next to them, or at a booth which shares a back with them. It's unspeakably rude. If the waitress tries to seat you there, tell her you want another table. If they say "seat yourself", put yourself an equal distance between whoever is in the place. Never, under any circumstances, seat yourself at a table next to, or a booth sharing a back with, another diner -- single or couple.

Thank you.

You could sit near them, and then insist that they move?

You are sat there because during a slow time there is only a few servers on and that is their section. The other areas have been cleaned by others, if you are a server and you have to reclean the entire restaurants because some jerks want a lot of space then you better get tipped really well. At $2/hour you don’t want to spend all evening restocking and cleaning tables all over the restaurant. I’ve been at places where you had to recount sugar packets and have just the right amount and refill salts, etc when you were done, which takes long enough with your 3 or 4 tables, but to add tables to it because people didn’t want to sit near others is ridiculous

First, around here, many say "seat yourself". They don't have sections closed off.

Second, is being 10 or 15 feet further away really that big of a burden on a server? It's like 3 extra steps. How lazy are you?

It’s not extra steps, it’s the fact that you have to clean and restock every table in your section at the end of your shift which takes long enough, but you also have to do that to other tables that people set at, so if people don’t want to sit in your section because they’re high maintenance, you then have a lot more tables to clean for $2/ hour. Seat yourself is a different story.

You are so lazy. I will not sit two feet away from another couple in a quiet slow restaurant. It’s ridiculous, you may as well be there on a double date.

Lazy azzz wrote:

You are so lazy.

THIS. Never heard someone complain so much about such an easy job.

Counting sugar packets, give me a break.

Retired waiter wrote:

You are sat there because during a slow time there is only a few servers on and that is their section. The other areas have been cleaned by others, if you are a server and you have to reclean the entire restaurants because some jerks want a lot of space then you better get tipped really well. At $2/hour you don’t want to spend all evening restocking and cleaning tables all over the restaurant. I’ve been at places where you had to recount sugar packets and have just the right amount and refill salts, etc when you were done, which takes long enough with your 3 or 4 tables, but to add tables to it because people didn’t want to sit near others is ridiculous

It is/was your lowlife job, get over it and get on with it or get out of it. Sheeesh, some people.

Knowing what is important and what isn't is what we have there. Where I or anyone else sits in a restaurant/diner falls into that not too important category in my book. What is important is the food and the service.

Other server wrote:

It’s not extra steps, it’s the fact that you have to clean and restock every table in your section at the end of your shift which takes long enough, but you also have to do that to other tables that people set at, so if people don’t want to sit in your section because they’re high maintenance, you then have a lot more tables to clean for $2/ hour. Seat yourself is a different story.

How can you have more tables to clean if it's the same amount of people sitting, but just sitting different areas. Two tables are two tables where ever they are in the room.

Retired waiter wrote:

You are sat there because during a slow time there is only a few servers on and that is their section. The other areas have been cleaned by others, if you are a server and you have to reclean the entire restaurants because some jerks want a lot of space then you better get tipped really well. At $2/hour you don’t want to spend all evening restocking and cleaning tables all over the restaurant. I’ve been at places where you had to recount sugar packets and have just the right amount and refill salts, etc when you were done, which takes long enough with your 3 or 4 tables, but to add tables to it because people didn’t want to sit near others is ridiculous

Within a capitalist/free market structure a $15 minimum wage has many unintended consequences. Have you ever been in a bank built in the 1950's or 1960's? A dozen spots for bank tellers. Circa 1969, atm's, no need for so many bank tellers. Telephone customer service jobs moved to India. Robots in factories. Self-service cashier lines at large grocery stores. If as a society, we were to pay waiters $15/hr., would you complain about seating customers 3 yards apart for the privacy of customers? Some of us have or had very complex &/or dangerous jobs. Your complaint about clean up time seems to trivial. Would you still make the same complaint while earning $15/hr.?

So it's not enough for you that you're wealthy enough to be entitled to professionally-prepared food and table service when you're away from home? You have to expect others as entitled as you to bow down as well.

That's not how it works. You want your own private section, pay extra.

Bad Wigins wrote:

So it's not enough for you that you're wealthy enough to be entitled to professionally-prepared food and table service when you're away from home? You have to expect others as entitled as you to bow down as well.

That's not how it works. You want your own private section, pay extra.

I'll put you down as one who agrees that closing a section down for slight convenience of staff is a sound decision. One of the waiters on this thread brought up $2/hr. I felt my question was reasonable. Would the issue still be the same at $15 per hour? I don't know about bowing down? I believe I stated three yards from other customers?

Lazy azzz wrote:

You are so lazy. I will not sit two feet away from another couple in a quiet slow restaurant. It’s ridiculous, you may as well be there on a double date.

If you really want to eat without people near you then eat at home. If I go to a public restaurant I don't expect to have control over where other people sit.

I would unless the other patron is Sand Dunes.

He’s a dick.

If another couple is seated next to my wife and I in a nearly empty restaurant, the tip goes from 20%+ to zero real fast.

Not so fast bro wrote:

This happens far too often and needs to be stopped.

If you walk into a restaurant and there are only one or two other diners (singles or couples), do not ever sit at the table next to them, or at a booth which shares a back with them. It's unspeakably rude. If the waitress tries to seat you there, tell her you want another table. If they say "seat yourself", put yourself an equal distance between whoever is in the place. Never, under any circumstances, seat yourself at a table next to, or a booth sharing a back with, another diner -- single or couple.

Thank you.

Agreed. I just recently moved to Utah, and when purchasing a movie ticket, you choose your seat at the same time. I can't believe how many times in a nearly empty theater, I'll have people choose the seat 2 seats away or even right next to me. It blows my mind. I've never seen anything like it.

sdfasd

The point of separate tables is that they're separate.

If you were seated at the same table ... then your complaint would have some validity.

But in the meantime ... get over yourself.

To me it’s the difference between a well run restaurant whose employees are thinking of the experience provided to its customers first and foremost, versus a place where they’re more concerned about making things easy on themselves.