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Aly Walansky
Updated March 07, 2016

New York City restaurants are seeing rents are topping out at $70,000 a month or more and costs just continue to rise. So restaurants are engaging in fierce competition to stay afloat and get all the cash flow they can. This includes encouraging patrons to spend less time at a table so they can usher in another seating.

Strategically, it’s worth a lot more to the restaurant to usher you out so another entrée can be ordered than let you stick around lingering over coffee and ice cream for an hour.

"Times have been tough for restaurants since the last real estate boom. Rents inflated almost overnight, especially for commercial spots in major cities like New York, and never went down. In fact, they keep rising, and the only way to make things work, financially, is to squeeze more seats in and cut back on labor costs. It's not an easy time for restaurateurs to say the least,” says Yossef Hermon, licensed New York City real estate agent and founder of propertyroom360.com.

So, just know that if your favorite neighborhood spot seems to be rushing you out the door, it’s nothing personal. It may be actually be one of the only things keeping them around so you can come back next month.

[h/t CBS NY]

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