[jdsully]

As a counter point I frequently linger and chat at restaurants. They do often bring the check but don’t force you to leave immediately. None of my friends have ever been in a rush to leave either.

Waiters are judged by the promptness of their service and it’s less risky to bring you the check than make a wrong call and annoy a table that’s waiting. The better ones tend to leave you alone.

[orev]

Believe me, they are dying to get you to leave. Restaurants and servers make their money by doing as many turnovers as they can in a night. If you’re blocking a table the whole night, that’s money they are losing, and they desperately want you to leave. They’re just trying to be polite and/or don’t want a bad Yelp review. When they give you the bill and say “no rush”, they’re lying.

[shalmanese]

Only once the restaurant is at capacity. If there's at least one other of your type of table open, then the restaurant loses zero marginal dollars by you being there (and arguably gains slightly by looking busy and more attractive).

I'm very conscious about leaving a full restaurant as soon as I'm done with my meal but that's maybe only 10% of my dining experiences ever. I'm perfectly happy to linger at a half full restaurant for as long as I want.

[jdsully]

There is an etiquette here. We arrive such that by the time we are done traffic is tapering off.

If we came at 5 and stayed the whole night I would imagine we'd be shooed off at some point.

[superhuzza]

Go talk to anybody who has worked for tips - Waiters want as much turnover as possible. It's better to get two tips of 20% then one tip of 25%.

Of course, this doesn't apply when the restaurant is totally empty. Then, they'd rather you stay and keep ordering things to bump up their tips.