A few weeks ago, Christina Izzo, 33, was out with a couple of friends at Ye’s Apothecary, a Szechuan restaurant and speakeasy that opened in NYC’s Chinatown last year.
They asked to order some more food — the restaurant serves a menu of $12 to $15 small plates — but were told they couldn’t: The clock was ticking and the 90 minutes allotted for their reservation were nearly up.
Izzo was peeved.
“It was almost like a bodyguard ushering you out of a club after a fight,” said the editor, who lives on the Upper West Side.
(Ye’s Apothecary did not respond to a request for a comment.)
When it comes to traditional notions of hospitality, time is up.
Facing limited space and staffing at the height of COVID-19, restaurants imposed strict time limits on tables. Now, faced with shrinking profit margins and a need to turn tables quickly, many hot spots are continuing the practice post-pandemic. Diners — who are looking to have lively, relaxed meals out with friends at long last — are none too pleased.
“I shouldn’t have to argue with you [if I] want to spend more money at your establishment,” said Izzo.
She had a similar experience recently at Torrisi Bar and Restaurant, a buzzy new spot on Mulberry Street.
When her party was first seated, a server warned them that they only had 90 minutes.
They were only granted more flexibility when Izzo flexed her media connections and said she planned to order lots of food from the menu of pricey Italian American dishes, which include linguine with clams ($29) and chicken alla griglia ($39).
Torrisi did not respond to a request for comment.
Time limits have gotten “out of control,” Izzo said, noting that it’s often just not feasible for three people to work their way through a multicourse meal in an hour and a half.
It’s “pretty impossible,” she said.
Mariel Rivera Hauck, a 35-year-old who works in advertising, has also been incensed by the restrictions.
She recently dined with a party of eight at Quality Italian in Midtown and was shocked when her group was asked to vacate their table and finish their evening at the bar.
“It was an experience that has never happened to me before in all my time dining in New York City,” she said
A free round of drinks “softened the blow,” Rivera Hauck said, and she returned to Quality Italian — famed for its $76 chicken parm pizza — a few weeks later.
But, the same thing happened again, and this time she was less understanding.
“I was like, wait, this is actually kind of messed up,” Rivera Hauck said. We were “spending a ridiculous amount of money on the company’s dime.”
Quality Italian did not respond to a request for comment. Reservations for the restaurant can be made on OpenTable, where it’s noted that for this restaurant, parties of two have just 90 minutes, while parties up to six have two hours and larger parties have two and a half hours.
Andrew Rigie, executive director of NYC Hospitality Alliance, said time limitations present a balancing act. One the one hand, he’s sympathetic to the fact that restaurants must “turn tables to keep their doors open,” but there’s also a need for hospitality.
“We’ll see how long these policies stay in place post-pandemic,” he told The Post.
The clock-watching isn’t limited to trendy spots.
Myriam Loor and her partner were rushed through a recent dinner at Cafe Luxembourg, the 40-year-old Upper West Side fixture.
They’d been looking forward to a nice meal out, but they had barely sat down before they were pressed to order.
Then, their appetizers arrived before their bottle of wine.
“I was very disappointed,” said Loor, a 61-year-old who lives in Putnam County.
She has no plans to return to the bistro, which did not respond to a request for comment for this piece.
Loor added, “There are so many other choices in New York.”