Over-familiar Waitstaff
Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned, though I'm not yet 40, but isn't there something a bit strange about a waiter who thinks that it's OK to plop down at the table with you while taking your order?
This happened to me last night while I was out with my family at a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, so it's not like it was some crazy theme restaurant, or a local diner where we were regulars. And as it happened, apart from his difficulty recognizing boundaries, our waiter was attentive, funny, and very helpful.
According to my mother, who was dining with us, this is becoming somewhat of a trend, with some restaurants actually encouraging their waitstaff to do this. How appalling. It's not that I need to see a waiter or waitress as being lesser than me, or anything like that. But when I'm paying them to provide a service, I expect a certain amount of respect and decorum, and I think that's reasonable to expect. They're not my pals, and we're not hanging out around the house.
I did inquire of the management whether they had a policy of encouraging waitstaff to sit down with customers, and the manager assured me that they did not. So it seems like our waiter was just freelancing. I hope the management makes clear that's not a good idea, because he would do better without such antics.