Restaurants in New York have decided to change the traditional notions of hospitality and set a timer for customers that goes off at 90 minutes.
New York City, which has some of the best-known eateries in the world, faces a high rush at restaurants, especially on the weekends. However, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, restaurants suffered limited space and staffing and imposed strict time limits on tables to increase the number of customers. Now, post-pandemic, many of them have continued the practice to turn tables quickly in order to maximise profits.
Christina Izzo, 33, who went out with a couple of friends at Ye’s Apothecary, a Szechuan restaurant and speakeasy that opened in NYC’s Chinatown last year, told New York Post that she had two such experiences where they were ushered out once their 90 minutes were up.
Izzo said, “It was almost like a bodyguard ushering you out of a club after a fight.”
Speaking about another such experience at Torrisi Bar and Restaurant, a buzzy new spot on Mulberry Street, where she said once her party was first seated, a server warned them that they only had 90 minutes.
Time limits have gotten “out of control,” Izzo told New York Post, adding that it was “pretty impossible” sometimes for three people to work their way through a multicourse meal in an hour and a half.
Mariel Rivera Hauck, 35, who works in advertising, also told the Post about a similar experience. She said that once she dined at Quality Italian in Midtown with a group of eight, and was shocked when her group was asked to vacate their table and finish their evening at the bar.
“It was an experience that has never happened to me before in all my time dining in New York City,” she was quoted in the report.
New York restaurants have been facing a lot of backlash over the practice as diners are left feeling rushed and unsatisfied with their outing.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of NYC Hospitality Alliance, said in the report that the time limits presented a balancing act. He expressed sympathy for the fact that restaurants had to “turn tables to keep their doors open”, that is sustain their business, but disapproved of the system in terms of hospitality.
“We’ll see how long these policies stay in place post-pandemic,” he told the Post.
