Restaurant etiquette: Sit where the hostess seats you.

I'm going to do a short series on restaurant etiquette. It was a very busy day at work today, and I noticed so many things happening around me that I got the immediate urge to write them down and make a post like this one.

This is going to be the first of probably something like five or six posts.

When you go out to eat you probably don't think much about what's going on around you. You're probably just thinking about sitting down, getting your food, and leaving.

Great.

Source: Pixabay.com

I'd say most people are like this. Sit me at a table.... I'm hungry.

It makes the world easy.

Imagine a world where everyone was constantly arguing about where they wanted to sit, what they wanted to do, where they wanted to go. That would make things difficult.

Unfortunately, some people really do want to make things difficult.

A good example of this in the restaurant industry would be people that don't want to sit where the hostess is sitting them.

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Let me tell you something that you probably don't know.

Restaurants are like countries. Tables are like states, and cities, and provinces. They are governed by their servers. Those servers are then governed by the manager. They have relations with the hostess, bartender, and back of house.

The hostess has a chart detailing the status of every single table.

The server has a section with a set number of tables in it. He is granted that section based on his rake. It is a privilege to have a good section.

It is earned.

Source: Pixabay.com

Let's say a guest walks into a restaurant. They are greeted by the hostess who then begins to take them to a table.

That table is listed on a chart. There are many details about that table of which you, the guest, is unaware.

Is there any chance we can get that table instead? You ask the hostess.

Sure! You can have whichever table you want! She is instructed to reply.

You choose to sit in a section that has already been sat recently.

That server is now overwhelmed.

The table that you were originally going to go to has a server that has not made any money at all that night because he has constantly been waiting for someone to sit at his table.

It's probably going to take longer than you expected to get some service because the server that isn't making any money, because he didn't get sat, is not going to be very willing to go out of his way to help the server that has now got two tables.

You probably don't think about this. It doesn't really make sense for people to be thinking about this sort of thing.

Nevertheless, you should always where the hostess seats you if you want to get good service.

Otherwise, you are probably going to double seat someone meaning that he will become overwhelmed while another server becomes angry and doesn't make any money. You might think that doesn't affect you.... but it will affect your service.

The best idea is to always sit where are the hostess seats you.