Seating Etiquette
Because most barbecue joints use a counter-service ordering system, many of the most popular places will have a line to get in and order. This can present some complications, specifically as regards to saving a place in line or saving a table for friends.
One point of etiquette is what to do when you are meeting a friend or friends for lunch and one person shows up before everyone else to get an early place in line. Can your friend or friends join you when they arrive later, effectively “cutting” in line?
If just one friend is joining you, it’s perfectly acceptable for them to skip the rest of the line and join you in your place. Two friends skipping the line to join you is pushing the limits of etiquette but generally acceptable, especially if you are placing one order for the group rather than three separate orders.
Having three or more late-arriving friends join you at the front of the line is generally not acceptable.
Another point of contention when it comes to barbecue lines is saving a table. Rookie barbecue fans will often get the bright idea to have one member of the group stand in line while the others commandeer a table and wait until their friend goes through the line and collects the order.
This is a big no-no. A fundamental rule of barbecue-line etiquette is that you should claim a table only after ordering/collecting your barbecue.
Here’s why.
If you’ve patronized a popular barbecue joint anytime in the past few years, you’ve probably waited in line to place your order at the counter.
This wait might be anywhere from an hour on a holiday weekend, to 20 minutes for a business lunch during the week. In between chatting with your lunchmates and perusing the day’s menu scrawled onto a sheet of butcher paper, you probably also scanned the dining room and experienced a brief moment of panic when you realized that every seat is taken.
Where will we sit?
The mind races with anxious thoughts of standing around with a multipound tray of smoked meats and sides as you watch seated guests enjoy their barbecue while your arms get tired and your food gets cold.
The reality, though, is that you rarely go to a barbecue joint nowadays and see guests standing against a back wall with barbecue in hand waiting for a seat to open up.
Why? Believe it or not, there is some method to the barbecue line madness. Through a process of trial and error, barbecue joint owners will coordinate the time it takes a guest to stand in line and get their food with the average time guests take to sit down and eat their food.
For example, if you arrive for a business lunch and the line is backed up to the front door, owners know that the pace of ordering means you will get your food in about 20 minutes. They also know that guests at most tables will take about 20 minutes to finish their lunch and get back to work.
Based on this pace of ordering and eating, owners will add enough seating so that when you get your food, someone is getting up to leave. If a bottleneck occurs, owners will find a way to shoehorn in some overflow seating. Have you ever seen those narrow benches along the walls with barstools? Though maybe not ideal, those are useful when things get busy and work fine as overflow seating.
Still, those guests not familiar with the ebb and flow of barbecue joints may give in to the panic and have a member of their party sit down and “save a table” until their friends get their food.
This is a major faux pas in the world of Texas barbecue. The unwritten rule is you only claim a table after you claim your food, for the reasons previously outlined. In some cases, the rule is literally written, with a sign that asks guests not to save tables.
“When people save tables, they occupy that seat for two to four times as long as it would have been occupied by someone sitting down to eat their tray, thus resulting in a backlog,” said owner and pitmaster Grant Pinkerton of Pinkerton’s Barbecue.
Referring to the delicate balance between the pace of ordering and eating and the number of seats available, Pinkerton confirms the process is more of an art than a science: “Don’t ask me how or why, but doing it this way (prohibiting guests from saving tables) results in people always having a place to sit.”
So, the next time you are in line at a barbecue joint and all the seats are full, trust the process and focus on visiting with your friends and perusing the menu with the knowledge that when you get your barbecue, a place to sit will be available.
Of course this only applies if the restaurant is busy and tables are full. If the restaurant is empty or there are many tables available, sitting down while waiting for a friend to order is perfectly acceptable.
Whether you consider standing in line for barbecue to be a social opportunity or a necessary evil, knowing the associated rules and etiquette is part of the shared experience of being a true Texan in the golden age of barbecue.
How the HOUBBQ Guide helps: On the individual barbecue joint profile pages you can refer to the Pro-Tip and Known-For data to get info about how the line system and seating works. You can get further tips in the Ordering area of the Location Details. In the Features Filter, you can narrow down places based on if they offer Table Service (in which case seating etiquette is really not a concern) or Counter Cut service. You can also filter by Good for Groups, Outdoor Patio, and Private Room which suggests more spacious dining areas and bigger tables for larger groups.