massraider
Footballguy
When I ran restaurants, I approached the squatters with, "hey, sorry guys, I have a reservation for this table. If you don't mind sliding over to the bar, we'll get you a dessert/cocktail/whatever".Oh, yeah. And standard reading the room rules always apply, but if the trade off to losing $5 from the squatters is an extra table then I'll net ahead. The decision making process is also a whole lot different at 9 pm than it is at 6. The latter and they can banter over their extra cocktails all they want while I work on my outs, but the former with a wait at the door? I gotta be trending towards something good if they're gonna get anything other than a proactive bill
Long as it has been over 90 minutes, everyone is cool about it. And really, if the guest doesn't understand that their 6:00 reservation might end at some point, I don't want them to come back. If someone has that little knowledge of the way restaurant economics work, they'll be in next week explaining to me what they pay for chicken at Costco.