How long would you queue up at a restaurant for? Would you stand outside the door for 45 minutes till they let you in? A whole hour?

I guess it depends on how much you care. I don’t queue up at restaurants at all. I think it’s ageist for restaurants to not take reservations and to insist that people hang around on the street till they condescend to let them in.

But there are people who disagree with me. Many diners think nothing of waiting for two hours or more for a table. Over a decade ago when the New York baker Dominique Ansel invented the cronut, the rush to buy this cross between a croissant and a donut was such that the line outside his bakery would start at six in the morning.

The concept of having to queue up for food may sound like something out of Oliver Twist but it is often a tactic that restaurants use to get free publicity. I am convinced that the Hard Rock Cafe franchise would never have taken off if the original founders had not limited entry to the first Hard Rock in London. Every day, way back in 1971, a line consisting mostly of tourists would form outside the restaurant’s Park Lane location drawing attention to Hard Rock which claimed to capture the vibe of London’s rock-music scene. (Ha!)

So, the trend of queuing up for food and drink is not new. Later in the 1970s the disco/ nightclub Studio 54 would make non-celebrities line up. The owners and managers would decide which of the unfortunates dying to be admitted was cool enough to get in.

The idea of queues came from rock concerts where the line for tickets would often form two days before tickets even went on sale. It still survives with trendy bars around the world which like to have long lines outside their doors.

Also Read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Rediscovering the old-world charm of Rome and its........

© hindustantimes