Restaurant Seating Etiquette

One of the most annoying things about restaurants in New York is that, by and large, they will not seat you unless your entire party has arrived -- even if you have a reservation.

I haven't seen that happen even once here in Paris. In fact, I've been stumped on more than one occasion, waiting outside for my dining companions to arrive when in fact they were already seated way in the back where I couldn't see them. (Embarrassingly, this even happened to me at lunch with a high official in my company. My only excuse was that he was way in the back, in a room I didn't even know existed.)

But a dinner the other day showed me for the first time why New York restaurants do this. And I have to say, I've got a bit more sympathy for them now.

It happened at a well-known steak-frites place, Relais de Venise. Though it's a one-trick pony -- the only dishes available are a lettuce-and-walnut salad, steak, frites and dessert -- it's quite a popular place. It opens at 7 and by 7:05 all the tables are full. And they turn them fast; even though they serve a three-course meal you are out of there in under an hour. (Very un-French, that.)

I got there at 7 and asked for a table for 2. The friend who was meeting me there hadn't arrived yet but I figured he'd be along in a few minutes, so I went ahead and ordered a bottle of wine and told them how we wanted our steak.

As time passed and my friend had still failed to show up, the manager kept shooting me dirty looks, and it soon hit me that even though I had ordered (the table was earning money already, not simply sitting empty), the longer it took for him to arrive, the longer we'd be sitting at the table and the longer it would be before they could give that table to someone else.

Or so I thought, anyway. He arrived at 7:20 and we were still out of there at 8:05.