this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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I work in the restaurant business. The amount of people that show up at last call and expect to be treated to full service for another hour or more is outrageous. It happens literally every night. There is no shortage of entitled asshats out there.
Yeah, I'm always cautious showing up within 30 minutes of closing time and always ask if the kitchen is still open or if its not too late to get X (usually try for something easy to make).
If its within 15 minutes of closing time I just consider it closed
Yup. Worked at a restaurant way back in the day and yeah so many people come in minutes before closing and expected full service, which we always gave them because we couldn't afford not to, but shit is it ever annoying. Plus most of these last minute stragglers were never good tippers and were almost always the most entitled people.
"couldn't afford not to?" guarantee the restaurant was losing money by staying open to serve those customers. The hourly wage of the waiters, cooks, dishwashers, everyone except maybe the hostess, is all going to cost more than anything a single table could possibly order
Not every restaurant is a corporate chain restaurant there and no, we couldn't afford to turn these customers away.
If you think about it, corporate chain restaurants are much less likely to lose money on that than small individual places, everything in a corporate chain is cheap and designed for efficiency. If a small, locally-owned place is gonna stay open an extra hour for one table, they're practically guaranteed to lose more money than a corporate chain.
Even worse is having a manager who insists we stop cleaning, open the kitchen back up, and make them whatever they want, along with the other people who show up after close because "there's still people here".
"Can't turn away business!" They say, as the restaurant hemorrhages labor expenses so that a late-night drunken deuce can split an app and a burger.
That's your fault. If you can't provide service, don't advertise that you're open. Any decent restaurant will provide full service to their last customers as if they were the first.
Hey, everyone! Here's one of the assholes I'm talking about. If you have any questions for the entitled diner, now's the time.
Another example of blaming the customer, not the manager. I'm there to eat, not run your business. What is with this expectation that customers at a restaurant should decide how much to pay the wait staff and also what the restaurants hours are?
If the kitchen closes early, let the customer know. If your boss forces you to keep the kitchen open for late arriving guests, complain to your boss.
You know you're an asshole,right?
I'm not. Maybe I just go to better restaurants than you. It's very common for the waiter to come by and ask if you want to order anything else before the kitchen closes. If you're not doing that at your restaurant, that's your fault. If a restaurant is starting to clear out, and it's past the poster hours, I'll ask when they're looking to close up to avoid overstaying. But that's as much courtesy as a customer needs to offer.
Our hours state that last call is 15 minutes before close. If you come in at 16 minutes before close, sure, we'll serve you, but we will not continue serving you 14 minutes before close, because that is after last call. The people I'm talking about are the people that hang around for an hour, sip their drink, nibble their appetizer and cause the rest of the staff to stay on for no reason other than to clean up after the customer leaves. This isn't a "manager" thing, it's a shithead customer thing.
I just don't understand what your "close" is then. If I come in 14 minutes before close, there's no food? Why would you list your closing time at 10:00 if you won't serve me at 9:50? If your kitchen closes at 9:45 then your posted hours should be 9:45 or earlier. If you're serving multiple courses then your close time should be no later than 8:30 if the kitchen closes at 9:45. If you're a to go place, then it should just be 9:45.
If you're just talking about someone going to Chipotle 5 minutes before closing and hanging out for 2 hours, sure, ya, dick move, but I think you can also just ask them to leave.
Close is when they lock the doors.
You should be considerate enough to realize if you cannot order, eat, pay, and leave by closing. You didn't get there in time.
Closing isnt when they stop taking orders, it's when your supposed to get the fuck out.
That's exactly it. I want to lock the doors, start sweeping and mopping, and close down the dish pit. I honestly don't give a shit when someone shows up, as long as they understand that need to be out by close. Go ahead, come in one minute before close, here's a shot and some bread that didn't get sold during the rush, adios. I just don't want to have to postpone my life because of the one person who decided to try to beat the buzzer, I've already been on for 8-10 hours and I'm beat. Shit, follow me to the bar I'm headed to, because they will still be open when I'm done, and you won't look like an asshole. They even have a solid vegan burger.