Roberto A. Ferdman, Washington Post - The other night I was eating a plate of noodles, and enjoying it. I was out to dinner with a friend, hunched over a meal we had been planning for weeks. The restaurant was newly opened and highly regarded. Life was good. And the food was great.
But then it happened. Again.
"Are you done with that?" the server asked, fingers already comfortable with the rim of my plate. "Can I get it out of your way?"
Yes, I had finished eating, because I am a vacuum; there was no food left in front of me. But my friend had not. His meal was only half-consumed.
"No," I said. "We're not done eating."
Rather than clear plates once everyone at the table has finished the meal, which has long been the custom, servers instead hover over diners, fingers twitching, until the very instant someone puts down a fork. Like vultures, they then promptly snatch up the silverware -- along with everything else in front of the customer. If you're lucky, they might ask permission before stealing your plate.
When a server clears a plate before everyone is finished, he or she leaves the table with a mess of subtle but important signals. Those who are still eating are made to feel as though they are holding others up; those who are not are made to feel as though they have rushed the meal. What was originally a group dining experience becomes a group exercise in guilt.
"It's definitely been getting worse," said Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University who has written extensively about the economics of eating out. "It's a problem. I don't like it, either."
[Restaurants are so dark these days it's impossible to read the menu]
It's possible that there's an economic impetus behind it. "The price of land is going up, which pushes up the value of each table," said Cowen. "That makes moving people along more important."
A similar trend, after all, sees many restaurants hoping that diners don't order dessert, because the course isn't terribly profitable and it encourages people to linger.
[Restaurant tables are getting smaller—and that's not okay]
1 comment:
You have hit a nerve: I am constantly pressured by servers to let the pick up my plate when others at the table have not yet finished eating.
Of course when I am thinking rationally, I slow down my consumption to keep pace with the slowest eater at the table, but I do not always remember in time.
Nowadays I lecture the server: "Not everyone has finished eating: please come back when everyone at the table has finished. I am not finished yet. Thank you." Even when my plate is empty.But slowing down to keep pace with the slowest is probably a gracious tactic that we should all practice more often. That and reminding the server that his or her services are not required until everyone at the table has finished eating. And talking.
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