Restaurants near closing time (home, live, store)

[beachouse]

My wife and I went to a local restaurant the other day about 9:45.
The hostess greets us and says I'm not rushing you but the kitchen closes in 10 minutes.
My wife and I looked at each other and she said thats OK we'll pass.
The hostess and a waitress gave each other a look like they were shocked.

I realize that restaurants want keep expenses as low as possible but it would make more sense to have the restaurant close for new customers at 10 and close the kitchen at 11.

Go to the Cheesescake Factory at 11:59 and you will greated cordially for dinner.

This is one instance where a large corp is beating the small corp by a longshot.Management setting policys that make sense.

[findinghope]

sorry, but i have to disagree. if you know a restaurant is closing at 10, i think it's rude of YOU to go in there 15 minutes before to have dinner. you do know that those people still have at least an hour of cleanup to do before they get to finally go home.

[beachouse]

The closing time is the closing time for NEW customers.

I'm sure if you went at 9:30 they are not going to ask you to leave at 10:00.

How many people are going to accept "Hurry up and order we are closing".

Just a plain rude way to treat a customer.

[DarkWolf]

You know we have plenty of 24/7 diners in this state go there or arrive at the restaurant 45 mins before closing.....sheesh what did u expect. I can understand dessert but a full meal is ridiculous for 15 mins before closing.

[beachouse]

OK the restaurants should not have it both ways then.

Close for new business at 9:15 then if your kitchen staff has to close the kitchen at 10.

[bustaduke]

Originally Posted by beachouse

My wife and I went to a local restaurant the other day about 9:45.
The hostess greets us and says I'm not rushing you but the kitchen closes in 10 minutes.
My wife and I looked at each other and she said thats OK we'll pass.
The hostess and a waitress gave each other a look like they were shocked.

I realize that restaurants want keep expenses as low as possible but it would make more sense to have the restaurant close for new customers at 10 and close the kitchen at 11.

Go to the Cheesescake Factory at 11:59 and you will greated cordially for dinner.

This is one instance where a large corp is beating the small corp by a longshot.Management setting policys that make sense.

I owned several small restaurants and I never turned away customers, even if I had to cook the meals for them myself.

But one thing you should know is that small restaurants are almost always run with one crew for lunch and dinner.

We opened at 11am and closed at 9pm. But we started cooking and getting the restaurant ready at 8am every morning and finished cleaning the kitchen for the day at 10pm for a total of 14 hours per day.

So I can see why some restaurants don't like serving people close to closing time. Something you should consider next time you're eating out.

busta

[ilovemycomputer90]

Reminds me of the movie 'Waiting'.

[EB2]

I see both sides. I've worked in the food service before, and having people want to order minutes before closing is really inconsiderate (and while I'm not saying YOU and your s/o or friends would do this, generally, those that come in that late, are the ones that order the things that make the biggest messes, usually when stuff has been broken down and cleaned already). Keep in mind, they still have a lot of cleaning to do, and probably want to go home and eat, or see friends, or their family, or just...live life and do what needs to be done. If things have been cleaned (even if only a few items), it doubles the time that the staff has to be there. I know I liked going home at the end of the night, even if all I had to look forward to was writing a paper.

With that said, a good establishment, while they may not be happy, should be a little more willing to serve you (businesses I've worked for, we had to serve, even if they came in seconds before the doors were locked, and EVERY inch of the store was cleaned [generally didn't get cleaned that quickly, of course]). If nothing else, be glad that they were fairly polite in the way they told you they were closing. By you going in, it may make others think that "oh, they're still serving customers...." and follow your lead.