[jaclaz]

Well, no.

Again, we are not talking of old friends, we are talking of strangers.

Even in the south (I lived in sicily almost 15 years) it is not at all common.

[mbrameld]

Why are we talking about strangers when the context was a restaurant manager greeting customers? Every decent restaurant that's been open for any length of time has a large number of regular customers.

[jaclaz]

And - again - regular customers are NOT normally hugged or kissed by the restaurant manager as a "standard" form of greeting, UNLESS they are - besides regular customers - also "friends" (and even that is not "common").