Is It Rude To Stay Till Closing Time? Here’s What Restaurant Workers REALLY Think.

When it’s last call at a restaurant, you as a customer may think you have all the time in the world to hang out and order another round or one last bite to eat. But for restaurant workers, it can be a different story.

“What [last call] really means is, ‘Hurry up and leave, please,’” said Elyanna Calle, a server in Austin, Texas, who is also the president of union Restaurant Workers United.

Asking to dine in right before closing time can be rude, depending on when you show up and the kind of service you are expecting.

“I don’t show up to a place less than 15 to 20 minutes before close,” said Bill Whitlow, a Covington, Kentucky-based restaurant operator. “But I don’t get upset if a guest comes in five minutes before we close.”

Calle said that an hour before it closes, she will go to a diner where she knows food comes out in 15 minutes. But she stays mindful of closing time.

“If it closes at 10 p.m., I will be out by 10 p.m.,” Calle said. “I’ll be aware, like, at 9:50, get a box, box up my food, pay, and be able to walk out as soon as soon as the clock hits 10.”

How rude it is to stay after a restaurant closes? It depends on how long you are lingering.

There’s a difference between staying past last call to finish your drink and staying past a restaurant’s closing hours. Izzy Alcheikh, a bartender for Huda, a New York City-based Levantine bistro, said it’s all right if you hear “last call” and actually get a drink that you enjoy sipping — “That’s completely fine,” he said.

But if customers do not acknowledge last call and stay long past a bar is closed, ignoring that every other table has already been cleaned up except theirs, this comes off as rude, Alcheikh said.

So if you are the last person at a closed restaurant and you