There’s a little ritual that plays out almost every time I’m at my local hangout – and it gets worse when the tourists show up.
It starts with two signs. One is a sandwich board outside. The other sits right where the host usually stands. Both say exactly the same thing in large, impossible-to-miss letters:
Please Wait to Be Seated.
And yet, almost every time I’ve been there this summer, at least one group strolls right past both of them.
They head straight to the patio, find a table, sit down and then start looking around as if they’re wondering why no one has come over to greet them. Sometimes they wait patiently. Sometimes they start waving at a server. Occasionally, you can almost see the frustration building because they think they’ve been forgotten.
Maybe this bothers me more than it should because I used to work in restaurants, and I’ve gotten to know many of the staff over the past couple of years and a few stayed with the place when it changed owners and underwent a name change and redesign. I’ve watched them work during quiet afternoons in the winter and packed summer days. I’ve seen the organized chaos that keeps a busy restaurant running, and I’ve come to appreciate something most customers never notice.
Restaurants have a rhythm. The host isn’t standing at the front because it’s some old-fashioned tradition. They’re the traffic controller. Every table that comes through that front door is assigned for a reason. One server might have just been sat with a party of eight. Another may have food coming up for three different tables. Someone else might be ready for another group. The host knows all of that.
When people bypass the host and take their own seats, that rhythm gets disrupted. Seriously, how many restaurants, aside from the quick-serve ones, do you know where people can sit wherever they want – unless they are told they can.
The server assigned to that section may not even realize someone is sitting there. Another server might assume someone else has already greeted them. Five or ten minutes pass before anyone notices, and suddenly it’s the restaurant’s fault that service was slow.
Except it wasn’t. The system was working exactly as it was designed until someone decided the rules didn’t apply to them.
I’ve never understood it. If a place has signs saying “Please Wait to Be Seated,” why assume they don’t mean you? They’re not decorative. They’re not suggestions. Their instructions are designed to make everything work more smoothly – for the staff and for the customers. I’m sure you have waited for a restaurant table before and you will do so again.
It’s the same at this place with another sign that makes me smile or maybe a bit angry.
The patio entrance has large signs asking customers to enter through the main door. They’re hard to miss. The patio access is blocked off for a reason. Yet every so often, someone ducks around the sign anyway. Again, I find myself wondering what goes through their mind. Do they think the rule is for everyone else?
Or do they simply not notice? I’m thinking they do notice they just don’t want to wait, so they squeeze around the sign or jump the border lights that separate the restaurant patio from a public area.
We’re all guilty of operating on autopilot sometimes. We’re thinking about meeting friends, ordering lunch or escaping the heat. It’s easy to miss things when we’re focused on ourselves. But I’ve also noticed that the people who work in restaurants spend most of their day focused on everyone else.
Servers are constantly scanning their sections without looking like they’re scanning. They’re watching drink levels, checking whether food has arrived, noticing who needs the bill, remembering allergies, timing appetizers and entrées, answering questions, clearing plates and somehow keeping a smile on their face through it all.
The host is doing the same thing on a larger scale, quietly directing traffic so the dining room and patio don’t become a disorganized mess. When customers ignore the system, it creates work that never needed to exist – and yet these customers are the first to complain about the slow service.
It’s a small thing, but small things add up over the course of a busy shift. The older I get, the more I notice work that often goes unseen: The bartender who remembers regulars’ orders before they’re spoken and the server who somehow keeps six tables happy at once, the cooks working behind the scenes while everyone compliments the meal but never sees the person who prepared it. The host who quietly prevents the whole operation from turning into chaos. Most of us only notice these jobs when something goes wrong. I find myself noticing them when everything goes right.
Maybe that’s why those signs catch my eye. They’re not really about where to stand or which door to use. They’re reminders that there is a system in place, created by people who do this every single day and know what they’re doing far better than I do.
Following that system isn’t about blindly obeying a sign. It’s about respecting the people behind it.
So, to those who don’t think the rules apply to them or bring their big city attitude to cottage country, just stop for a moment, read the sign, and wait to be seated. You can do it.
johnberkovich.com 