“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.

Don't worry, chances are you will not be standing around waiting for a seat as your barbecue gets cold.

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?

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The mind races with anxious thoughts of standing........

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