Could dining at 'geriatric hour' save the restaurant industry?
Call me peculiar – or just old and boring – but my favourite time to sit down for dinner in a restaurant is 6pm, or in the words of a pal – geriatric hour. There are many benefits: nothing on the menu has run out yet, I’m still feeling perky and the place isn’t full, so I can hear myself think. Best of all, I’m home before 9pm and still have time for a movie or an early night. What’s not to like?
Plenty, according to British restaurant-goers. According to booking platform Resy, 7-8pm is the most sought-after dinner reservation slot in Britain. Presumably the latter end gives workers time to knock off from the office and grab a drink before they eat, or head home, feed the kids and get the babysitter sorted first.
It’s also edging towards the chic dining hour so beloved in continental European countries like Spain, where restaurant-goers are only just picking at their pre-dinner olives come 10pm.
This eating later trend dovetails with a survey for Jacob’s Creekwines, carried out several years ago now but still relevant, which found that between 1997 and 2007, the average British family shifted its dinner back by two hours, to 7.47pm. This is thanks to longer working hours and changing lifestyles.
The fallout for restaurants has been that 5-7pm is now witching hour, favoured only by toddlers, the elderly and unfortunates who failed to nab a glamorous slot in time.
The thing is, we all need to acquire an appetite for early dinners now. The Government’s imposition of a 10pm curfew means the survival of restaurants might depend on it.
In theory, restaurants can still take orders up to 9pm or even later and manage to get guests out the door in time. But clearly, they can’t cater to every night owl at the last minute. That’s why James Fowler, owner of The Larderhouse and Terroir Tapas restaurants in Bournemouth, has started dinner service at 5pm instead of 6pm at weekends.
For his business to survive, he needs to make up for the lost time and maximise covers without, of course, compromising the safety of customers. “That one hour really does act as a safety net for key service times,” he says, explaining that before the curfew, there was time for a 30-minute pause between turning tables.
This ensured incoming and outgoing guests didn’t come into contact, and staff had time for a thorough clean-down. But 5pm is exceptionally early for dinner, even for me. Will guests want to eat that early? “It’s going to be interesting,” Fowler admits. “No one wants a table before 7pm.”
Lucy Bosi, who helps run London’s two Michelin-starred Bibendum restaurant alongside chef husband Claude Bosi, would love more diners to sit down at 5pm but fears it won’t solve the crisis facing the industry. “We’re a sector already hit with reduced capacity due to spacing and now this,” she says.
“I would love people to continue to support us as they have done and think about eating earlier. Perhaps they will in the short term – we can only hope. The fact is if people don’t, then many of their favourite restaurants might not survive.”
Doing your bit for restaurants by eating earlier might also have health benefits and help you lose weight, according to registered dietitian Dr Frankie Phillips. “Some studies show that eating most of our calories or energy earlier in the day is more in line with the body’s natural circadian rhythms,” she says.
“On a practical note, if you have lunch around 1pm and then wait until late for dinner, you’ll be ravenous when it arrives. If you’re eating out, that might mean diving into the breadbasket several times before you even read the menu.” Not going to bed on a full stomach also aids digestion, Dr Phillips says.
An unscientific Twitter survey revealed that many people quite like the idea of enforced nursery-hour dining. “I feel like I’ve been preparing for this for ages,” tweeted one avid restaurant-goer. “My preferred time is 6.45pm – can go straight from work, watch the place fill up, get the staff when they’re fresh and leave when it’s all buzzy.”
So, discover the underrated pleasures of eating early and give life support to the restaurant industry. Just don’t think about fellow diners in Spain, who will still be digesting their lunch as you sit down to dinner.
