How Close to Closing Time Can I Walk Into a Restaurant? [Video]

When I started dating my boyfriend, we were both working hourly jobs — me as a backwaiter at a restaurant and him as a sales associate at the Apple Store. Most of our dates took place after we both got off work after 10 p.m., after scrambling to find a restaurant that would seat us for a late dinner. It was on those nights that I’d notice a discrepancy between us: he would never want to walk into a restaurant within 30 minutes of their closing time while I didn’t mind. “There’s no harm in asking,” I’d say.

It turns out that I might be in the minority on this matter. When I polled my Instagram followers on the latest time they’d consider arriving to a restaurant without a reservation, 60% of the 136 total responders said an hour before closing time, 34% said 30 minutes before, 4% said 15 …