Campers*

Scenario: You are meeting with some friends from out of town and haven’t seen them in months. You all decide to meet at Olive Garden to eat, have a few drinks, and catch up. Everything goes smoothly with your server; you pay for your meal and decide to play catch up with your friends for awhile.

Server’s reaction to this scenario: ANGRY. People don’t realize at most restaurants servers are only allowed a certain number of tables. At Olive Garden we get three. This means the more time you waste talking with your friends, the longer our table is being taken. When you sit and talk after you are finished eating, we then go from having a three table section to a two table section, which can dramatically decrease our tips for the night. We call people like this “campers,” because they camp out at their table until they are good and ready.

A server’s intention is not to rush customers. We do everything we can to make the customer’s time as pleasant as possible, but once s/he is finished eating and has paid, it is time to go. It’s not fair to the people standing in the lobby that have been waiting 45 minutes for a customer to sip on his/her last few drinks of wine, or water for that matter.

What to do as a server? I like to make it a point that I want my tables to leave when this happens but without being rude. I clear away any extra plates, even if they are small appetizer plates. I clear away glasses, napkins, silverware, and even coasters. My point is to get everything cleared off but what is left for them to eat or drink, and if they haven’t touched that in awhile, I ask if I can clear that away, as well. Usually customers take the hint they need to leave and get up. However, some are not so quick.

I sometimes have tables ask, “Do you need us to leave, miss? Do you need this table?” It is policy for us not to tell them they should leave. Instead I reword it to, “Oh, we just have a lot of people in the lobby waiting to be seated,” or, “just make sure you got me covered (with a big smile or a wink).” If they have already paid, I use the first line.

I find myself frustrated by this situation even when I am not a server but rather when I’m a customer at a restaurant. I sit in the lobby forever and watch a table sit and drink coffee for forty-five minutes. It is not fair to anyone else. There should be a time limit to sit once people have paid.

If you haven’t paid for your meal and continue chatting and lingering around, that’s a different story. It is discourteous to the server, especially at the end of the night. Most servers cannot go home until they have closed out all of their checks, so while you are chatting and mingling, they have to wait for your conversation to be done. While it is, of course, part of the job, it is disrespectful.

How long should you wait after eating to leave or pay the bill? Others wonder the same thing. Check out the responses.