When friends (almost) become SCs

[Catwoman2965]

Has anyone ever had a friend who bordered on being an SC? This happened to me last night - not so much an SC, but slightly inconsidereate and clueless...at several points, i wanted to run and hide.

Background - out for happy hour, as another friend is moving to a neighboring state as she got a wonderful new job...so we go, and its a kind of trendy, upscale restaurant with an outside patio bar (which is VERY tiny) - as well as outside seating for the RESTAURANT - and you have to walk through the outdoor restaurant part to get to the bar - so we get there, say our hellos, and get a beverage. We are all starving, but as the bar is so small, really no tables to speak of, and the bar is full, so we decided to head down to the restaurant for a quick dinner.

There is one table, kind of a circular booth, with pillow, clearly meant for more than 3 - my one friend says (as the hostess told us to sit anywhere) - oh, that looks cool - my other one says i think we need more than 3 to sit there.

So we sit down at another table, and get water, bread and menus. My one friend, who I love dearly, comments, not once, but several times, in a rather loud voice "this is VERY expensive" - and asked, well, what should we do now? Um, we have alraedy been seated, seen our server, etc. so I am NOT going to walk out on him - let's just get some appys and such. So we order, and are sitting, chilling, waiting for the food.

Then some other friends come over, and we have one chair left, so she sits, then a couple others come join us, and are standing next to the table, until the hostess politely asks them to move, as they are blocking the way - which is fine. But no one seemed to get that it wasn't ok to just stand around; that's what the BAR is for....and got kind of annoyed that they had to move!

Second friend orders some food, and rather than just splitting the bill, they both ask "how much was that" and "can we get two checks" - I don't know, maybe it was just me, but having waitressed before, I am aware there is a clear divide between the bar and restaurant portion of an establishment. Just get one check, and figure it out - i just felt like the way they acted made us all look cheap and clueless!

So we are done, and we pay, and then i make a move to go back to the bar, as since we are not eating, or ordereing any more food, no reason to take up a table that someone else could be sitting at - and potentially take away tips from the waiter. Again, no on got that....hello??? So we finally go back to the bar, but like I said, i cringed a couple of times at their comments/actions. It also could have been I was very tired, and not really in any mood to be out in public!

Any thoughts on this from those in the restaurant biz?

[Seshat]

I'm not in the restaurant business, but I do have a point to make: people not in an industry don't necessarily understand how that industry works. Quite frankly, I don't think they should have to, either.

I understand that the way the US restaurant system is currently run, customers are expected to know some elements of the industry. (I think that's silly, but I also understand that that's not the fault of the peons at the bottom of the chain.)

As a customer, presuming I know nothing of the industry, I would consider it perfectly reasonable to:
1. Walk out after I get my first real chance to see the prices and the type of food on offer.
Most of the places I go, there's a menu near the entrance. I look at the prices there, and decide whether or not to eat at that restaurant.
If my first chance is after I'm seated, that's the restaurant's problem not mine.

2. If seating is not assigned, I presume it's reasonable to take any table which is intended for roughly the number of people in my party.
If seating is assigned, I presume it's reasonable to make a request such as 'near the window'.
I do think it's a bit ridiculous of customers to want 'this specific table' or to take a table intended for six when there's two of them.
I don't think it's the customer's responsibility to know or care about waiters having assigned sections - the customer is out for a night out to eat and relax, not to organise themselves for the convenience of the restaurant industry. If assigned sections causes a problem, then maybe it's a bad system.

3. I do think that customers should recognise that being in the way is a no-no. Get to your table, stay at your table, in the chairs. If there aren't enough places at the table for everyone, get in touch with the staff and ask to be moved to a larger table, or to two adjoining tables.
Having a relaxing night out doesn't include being a pain for everyone else.

4. Splitting the bill - that's the customer's responsibility, IMO. If a restaurant offers the ability to split bills, that's a smart thing and a generous thing, but not necessary.
That said, with the advent of computerised point of sale systems, it'd be relatively easy to program into the system the ability for a bill that lists meals/drinks/etc by chair, with subtotals after tax for each seat at the table.
This would make splitting the bill a trivial exercise, and I think the industry should adopt it.

5. If the restaurant is quiet, and it's not yet near closing time, I think most customers wouldn't see any problem with staying at their table and talking until they're ready to go.
Sure, at a busy restaurant, it's obvious you're holding everything up. Sure, at closing time, you're holding everything up.
But if there are plenty of empty tables and it's still early in the night, and you're far from the last customers, then the only reason it's a problem is the industry system of assigned sections. And that isn't the customer's problem. There's nothing other than an industry practice preventing new customers from being seated at one of the empty tables, and customers aren't issued with psychic mind-reading helmets either.

[Catwoman2965]

My issues weren't so much with the restaurant staff, I was more on their side; it was more with my friends, just assuming it was ok to spread out, like the patio was an extension of the bar, and then to comment LOUDLY that oh this is expensive, and can we split the bill....bascially, and i'm not trying to be snotty or mean, acting like they don't get out much....I quite honestly was kind of embarassed as they came off as being kind of cheap and unsophisticated...call me a snob, but that was my take on the situation.

[powerboy]

One of my buddies, would bitch about everything, and expect them to bend over backwards, because he was a business owner. He thought, that he should have a discount.

Another friend. He would not tip for anything. He would bitch at me, when I would.