 | Totally agree John – I recently called to book a table for 5 people at a nice, but not particuarly fashionable establishment. No problem at all in getting the reservation for 7:30 on a Friday evening, but then came the somewhat ungracious “you can have the table until 9:30”. They didn't seem to appreciate my retort of “fine, if you can serve a party of 5 comfortably and fully within 2 hours, we'll vacate at that time”. As you say, there are discreet ways of doing this and surely they are far better to say, that they may need the table back rather than putting the diner on clock-watch. If I'm spending £100 a head on a wonderful meal, no way am I going to wolf it down to meet their schedule. I remember the times when this problem was usually solved by the suggestion of taking coffee in the more comfortable surroundings of the bar/lounge area – a much nicer way of getting tables vacated and still keeping the revenue for after dinner drinks.
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